[M.I.I] Robson's article on media consumption

One of The Guardian's articles written by Matthew Robson in July (this year) explains different technologies used by teenagers to consume media (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/teenage-media-habits-morgan-stanley). I want to focus on music. Radio is one which generates many opinions as I think it isn't as unpopular as Robson says. He says how teenagers don't seem to be "regular listeners to radio" because there are other alternatives to listening to music, which he thought was one of the main reasons that they actually listen to it. I asked four participants how often they listened to music, all said "everyday". Alex 17, mentioned how she listens to Radio 4 before going to sleep.
Last.fm is another way to listen to music, with live streams of music that they can choose. This opposes to how some DJs choose the music themselves based on the week's music charts. I know for a fact that this is true in some cases but most stations such as Radio 1, Heart and Kiss allow their listeners to call up or send for a request through texts or e-mails. This allows them to choose a song whereas Last.fm allows them to choose far many more songs. Therefore, I agree with Robson on how some listeners may prefer to choose their music but then a DJ can be like the "shuffle" button choosing the music for them.
Music is now more available than ever, with portable music technology such as Apple's iPod, mobile phones music players, MP3 players and so on. Young adults listen to music a considerably amount whether they are walking, sitting at a computer or with friends. Where the music comes from is the dilemma that is concerning the government. According to Robson's calculations, eight out of ten teenagers are downloading illegally. I think these are reliable results as my own were very close with ninety percent having illegally downloaded. What concerns me is how Robson's research, focusing on teenagers suggests that young audiences are downloading illegally, through file sharing sites. I asked a participant about how they started downloading illegally and he said that he was "encouraged by my mates", suggesting how recommendations lead to more people downloading.
Despite the music being consumed for free, most (illegal) downloads are bad quality. Another participant from my questionnaire sample mentioned how he would download a song and if it was not a good quality then he would buy the song through iTunes. iTunes are good quality but young users are put off my the prices, 79p per track. By using a combination of methods to consume music, young adults are then able to balance their illegal and legal downloading.
There is multiple ways of listening and buying music but as some young adults cannot afford to buy music, illegally downloading seems to be their solution to obtaining music. Most teenager don't realise what they are doing to get music is in fact illegal and they don't know the consequences. Most participants in my sample were aware that it was illegal and are cautious and have been discouraged from using them because of the viruses you receive. Only but two participants mentioned how it was illegal so this led them to not using it anymore so the fact that it is illegal does not seem to be their main concern.