14 DAY TRIAL // If it ever came down to making a choice between spending precious time with a loved one and listening to music, young people in the UK would rather do without the former. A new survey conducted by the British indie label Marrakesh Records comes to show that youngsters today can simply not live without playing their favorite tunes – not even for a week.
The survey included over 1,000 people aged 15-24 and the majority of them said they would rather not make love than not listen to music. More specifically, 60 percent of those queried said they could not last a single week without playing the tracks of their favorite artists, let alone for much longer, as opposed to being able to go considerably more without being intimate with someone.
About the same percentage of respondents was also registered when it came to the ever-burning issue of downloading music illegally. An overwhelming percentage of over 60% felt they should not pay for music: 61 percent said music should be totally free and 70 percent openly admitted that they did not feel bad for downloading tracks illegally. On the same note, 43 percent of the music collections of all respondents came free of charge, as the survey indicates.
Young people cannot live without music, the findings further indicate. 81 percent of the respondents had used an MP3 player in the week before the survey, while 70 percent admitted to buying a new CD of their favorite artist that same week. Nevertheless, the most striking finding of the poll remains the fact that youngsters would be willing to give up their love life than face a single week without their music.
As Marrakesh Records reveals, the survey is meant to shed some light on what rattles young people’s cage in times of economic downturn, as well as to establish which are the forces that keep the music industry still going strong. “If 2008 put the V in volatility for the music industry, 2009 looks set to test powers of prediction to the limit. This mighty economic force - which generates £billions for Britain - finds itself again in turmoil just as the credit crunch starts to hit leisure spending. What is the true state of the industry? We ask the people at the heart of the battle - people whose secrets are rarely revealed.” the label says in a press statement just released.
A full list with all the findings of the Marrakesh Records survey will be published on Monday, February 16.