Music piracy 'does hit CD sales'

Record sales in the US have fallen because of people using the internet to download albums, a study suggests.
The report, for the country's National Bureau of Economic Research, studied the habits of 412 students.

It said the US music industry lost one fifth of a sale for each album downloaded from the internet.

The study contradicts a previous report, conducted in 2002, which said swapping songs online had no negative effect on music sales.

That report, by Harvard and North Carolina universities, said high levels of file-swapping had an effect that was "indistinguishable from zero".

Nearly a third of the sample who had albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers said it grew more valuable to them as time went on. But over 80% of Britney Spears album owners said they had grown tired of her records. Albums bought legitimately were valued more than downloaded music, the study said.