Seven million admit to stealing music

The full extent of illegal internet downloading was revealed today by new figures showing that more than seven million people in Britain steal music over the web.

Music industry chiefs have now declared war on the culprits, many of whom are teenagers, warning them to stop or they could be jailed.

The British Phonographic Industry - the record companies' trade association - today said 7.4 million people have admitted to downloading music from illegal sites. Albums from top artists such as Dido, The Darkness, Britney Spears and Norah Jones have been targeted by the piracy, which has cost the record industry millions of pounds.

Illegal downloaders' spending has slumped by 32 per cent on albums, and by 59 per cent on singles. File-sharing allows illegal downloaders to swap music stored on computers with millions of people all over the world. They can download an album and "burn" the music on to a CD, saving up to £15 each time.

Internet users will now be warned on their computers that they face court action if they do not disable the software that enables them to take part.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said: "There is no clearer evidence of the damage that illegal downloading is doing to British music and the British music industry. Illegal file-sharing is causing real financial damage to artists, songwriters, record companies, publishers, retailers and everyone involved in the business."

The music industry is encouraging legal payment for downloads, which allows tracks to be bought over the internet for less than £1 each. Coca-Cola recently launched a successful paid-for service with 100,000 tracks sold so far this year, while Apple is due to launch iTunes store in Britain for its best-selling iPod player, with a choice of thousands of songs.

The Apple service has been a huge hit in the US - where the music business's crackdown was pioneered - with 50 million downloads in a year.

Mr Jamieson said: "The bulk of the problem is facilitated by a small hard core who offer hundreds, often thousands of music files over the internet. These 'serial uploaders' are flouting the law. People who trade or swap or share music files illegally open themselves up to the possibility of legal action. With this campaign we are taking this message directly to computer desktops."

The BPI warning which will appear on computers reads: "The file-sharing network you are connected to indicates that you are offering music to others from your computer. Doing this without permission from the copyright owner is illegal. When you break the law you risk legal penalties."

The British music industry, worth £5billion a year, denies it is simply protecting wealthy artists. A spokesman said: "The illegal downloaders tend to go for the most popular artists, but in the long term unknown artists will lose out because record companies will not have the money to invest in new artists."

Thirty per cent of all downloads are the work of 12-19-year-olds, and 47 per cent of these offenders download more than 10 tracks a month.

They are more likely to live in London and the South-East where internet broadband connections have taken off more quickly than in other regions.