Although the RIAA claims that P2P has a big impact on music sales, a recent study done by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf of the Journal of Political Economy has proved that P2P has had very little or no effect on music sales whatsoever.

Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe.

In 2002, the RIAA claimed that due to P2P, there were 80 million less music albums sold than in the previous year, however, according to the study, P2P couldn’t have an impact bigger than 6 million album, which leaves no excuse for the 74 million albums that stayed on the shelves.

From my personal experience, I now purchase music much more than I did when I didn’t have internet. It allows me to trial the whole album from the confort of my chair and avoid disapointments unlike what used to happen previously.