Motivations for Gratifications of Digital Music Piracy Among College Students

Abstract

This article reports on a quantitative survey done at a large eastern university to study motivations for gratifications of digital music piracy among college students. The study found that economic utility, collection utility, and social utility all motivate digital music piracy. A key finding was that social utility was the most important motivation for illegal downloading. Looking at music piracy as a social phenomenon may be a key to improving the effectiveness of antipiracy strategies.