I am writing a study concerning the impact of peer-to-peer networks on
the music recording industry. It's essential for this topic to have a
good grasp of the true size and nature of p2ps. I have searched the
net extensively, and the best sites i have found have been slyck.com,
redshiftresearch.com (who seems to have amazing data, for a huge
price!), and those sources indicated on the Google Answers response
here: http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=31618.
However, these sites still lack the kind of info I am seeking...

What I am looking for is this: stats* that demonstrate the size of p2p
network usage and content through number of program downloads (for
various systems such as kazaa, bearshare, imesh, edonkey,
morpheus...), number of files available through them, number of files
downloaded (total, and during 3, 6, or 12 month periods?), type of
files being traded (% music, %movies...), average number of people
logged on at once, average number of files available at once, etc.
What also lacks from the other Google Answers response listed above is
current data (i.e. for 2003? last week?)

What's most important to me (and what I am particularly having a hard
time
finding) is THESE NUMBERS OVER TIME (ideally, since the inception of
consumer p2p trades in the late 90's with napster...). For instance:
charts demonstrating the number of people using the services over
time, number of program downloads over time, number of files traded
over time, etc. What I expect to find is exponential growth in this
regard resulting in #'s in the billions to date for the number of
files downloaded or available (for instance, kazaa already offers
nearly 1 billion files at one time).

Like I said, I have already looked pretty hard for this info and I
haven't come up with much, so good luck and thanks!


*note - the stats listed are a representative "wish list," and i will
accept more (or less) than these numbers, as I don't truly expect all
of them to be available.

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Clarification of Question by deerob-ga on 15 Mar 2003 10:17 PST

An additional thought:

I would really love to find stats showing usage among college students
in particular, if possible.

I know that these figures are difficult or impossible to find, so,
when/if I am able, I may up the price, or else I am willing to tip
$5-15 depending on the fitness of the results for my needs.

THANKS!