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The £862m of the nation's downloaded music
22nd November 2006
Music lovers’ downloads to be protected by home insurance
The nation’s music lovers are at risk of having to fork out a combined £862m – or £257 each – to replace their downloaded music, according to new research by Privilege Home Insurance.*
And with the value of downloaded collections increasing by £25 a year on average, the research shows that just 17 per cent of music-lovers actually back up their downloaded collections and a quarter (24 per cent) have previously had their entire downloaded music collection destroyed , estimating it took three weeks to replace their favourite tunes.
With over half of the population (57 per cent) admitting they update their collections to reflect new music formats, experts predict more and more music lovers will take to downloading music in the coming years and downloads from sites such as iTunes will increase by 315 per cent in Europe by 2010.**
The research also shows that it’s not just the iPod-generation that is at risk. While 18-24 year olds have downloaded collections averaging £310 each, those aged 30-50 have collections averaging £159 and even the over 55s have almost £100 worth of downloaded music on average.
But with the research indicating that just three per cent of the population have insurance cover for electronic copies of music on their home insurance policy, Privilege is responding to the phenomenal growth in downloaded music and has announced that from 19th November 2006, it will automatically give all new and existing home insurance customers up to £1,000 worth of cover for their downloaded music if stolen or damaged by an insured cause (for example, in a fire or flood).
Kate Syred, Commercial Director at Privilege, said:
“Our research has highlighted the risk music-lovers are taking by not insuring their favourite downloaded music collections. Many consumers do not realise quite how much it would cost – or how long it would take – to replace their music downloads.
“In order to ensure our music loving customers – existing and new – can have peace of mind, we’ve announced that downloaded music will now be protected on their home insurance policies at no extra cost. But customers are advised to keep hard copies of receipts in case they need to claim, as electronic proof of purchase may be lost along with the music itself.”
Notes to Editors
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc on behalf of Privilege Insurance. Total sample size was 2,370 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 26th - 28th September 2006. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
The Target Group Index (TGI) is a continuous survey where data collection runs throughout the year so that seasonality does not skew results. The survey is based on a sample size of c.25,000 interviews per annum. The self-completion questionnaire is placed with selected respondents at the end of BMRB`s Access Omnibus survey.
* There are 44,020,057 adults in GB (18+, Census 2001), of which 7.61% pay to download music (TGI 2006 Q1 (Oct 04-Sep 05)). This means there are 3,349,926 downloaders with an average value of their downloaded collections of £257.46 each (YouGov / Privilege) = £862,472,034.90 total national downloaded collection value. The downloaders spent an average of £25.33 (YouGov / Privilege) on downloads in the last 12 months, giving an annual value of £84,853,625.58.