There is a concern being raised that a whole generation of music fans aren't viewing music as something you should pay for. According to Jupiter Research, illegal peer-to-peer networks are used three times as much as legal services, while the report concludes many younger consumers do not consider music to be a product to be paid for because of the availability of illegal networks. Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan told BBC News that the digital youth of today are being brought up on a near limitless diet of free and disposable music from file-sharing networks.

On paper, "When these consumers age and increase spending power they should become key music buying consumers". In reality, "Unless the music industry can transition these consumers whilst they are young away from free consumption to paid music formats, be they digital or CDs, they may never develop music purchasing behaviour and the recording industry could suffer long-term harm."

The research looked at the buying habits of music fans across Europe. Those nice honest Swedes are the most likely to pay for their music, with 31% using legal download sites, while a mere 10% of European-wide consumers say they are prepared to pay for music via services like iTunes.

It's not all doom and gloom for the legal download market though as the fun doesn't stop there either for the traditional sector of the music industry, iTunes have been ruffling a few feathers lately with regard to prices.

If you're one of those people who still goes into a record shop to buy your music, then the idea of different prices for different products is simply a way of life. Your local record store will charge you in relation to a number of factors, chart position, size of artist and label, as well as the age of a product for example the cheaper price for a single in first week of release idea.

However when Apple launched their iTunes service, this pricing model was slung out of the window, replaced by a flat 79P fee for any track. So determined were they to stick to this that when Band Aid wanted to charge £1'50 for 'Do They Know It's Christmas' last year, iTunes made up the difference, although only after a bit of handbags first.

Now to of the major players in the music industry, Sony BMG and EMI are to challenge this flat rate policy of iTunes. They would rather have a varied price structure, which would, in theory, allow them to sell emerging talent at a cheaper rate, and increase the fee for larger artists, for example if on a major tour a band the size of Coldplay or U2 for sake of argument, were to play a new track and make it immediately available for download, the big boys of the industry reckon that the exclusiveness of such a track is a good enough reason to up the price.

ITunes will stick to their guns though as they believe the flat fee per track idea makes life simple for all as everyone knows what they are likely to pay for their music. Elsewhere on the net the varied pricing idea is already in place, HMV already offers some tracks at different prices to the norm on their digital download service; the current Madonna track is slightly more expensive with some songs available for as little as 49P. The problem for the likes of HMV and the rest is that iTunes is the dominant player in legal downloading and are likely to dictate that market in thelong term.

Research in the US recently revealed that iTunes is now retailing more music than the more traditional high street options like Tower Records. This one is likely to run, although while the record labels and iTunes are posturing over prices, illegal downloading is still the major headache for both of them as it seems that regardless of the price, if it can be got for free than more people will go down that road, not bothered by the message put out from the music industry that it is effectively stealing from the artists who make it.