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The British Music Rights survey found that 95% of the 18-24 year olds that it surveyed had carried out some form of illegal copying, whether it was grabbing files from friend's hard disk, ripping borrowed CDs or recording from the radio.

Two-thirds said that they copied at least five CDs each month.

The BMR's chief executive, former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey, said that the survey showed that the music industry must adapt to music fans' behaviour.

"For somebody who has spent 30 years in the music industry,

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you instinctively know this stuff is going on. But when you actually sit looking at your computer and see a number that says 95% of people are copying music at home, you suddenly go, 'Bloody hell'," he told The Guardian. "Ultimately it has to get better. At some point musicians and songwriters have to make enough money out of it otherwise they stop doing it."

Sharkey believes education plus free, advertising funded music services can change attitudes, but he is concerned that planned changes to the law may have an adverse effect.

In a forthcoming revision of copyright law, the government is expected to permit format shifting - such as ripping a CD onto a computer then transferring the files to an iPod. While this would only give a legal rubber stamp to an accepted practice, Sharkey thinks it may give the impression that music can be freely copied.

He wants the government to consider introducing a system for compensating creators.