Study: more songs downloaded, legally or not

About 5 billion songs were downloaded illegally last year, far outnumbering the more than 500 million purchased legally, market researcher NPD Group said Tuesday.

The number of U.S. households participating in illegal file swapping rose 8% to 15 million, Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD said. The growth in the number of households involved slowed from 2005.

At the same time, legal online purchases of music jumped 56% and the number of U.S. households buying legally rose to 13 million, NPD said.

The average user of LimeWire, a major source of unauthorized sharing, downloaded 309 files last year, a 49% rise from 2005, the research firm said.

“Unfortunately for the music labels, the volume of music files purchased legally is swamped by the sheer volume of files being traded illegally,” said Russ Crupnick, an NPD analyst. “Five billion files downloaded illegally clearly affect prospects for both CD sales and sales of digital song tracks online.”

About 70% of households that bought songs online used Apple Inc.’s iTunes, NPD said. The average number of songs bought by each iTunes user fell 11%.