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The investment bank found that 36 per cent of US teens bought their music from online services in 2006, up from 28 per cent the previous year. At the same time the use of p2p networks to obtain free, unlicensed music fell by eight per cent, although the proportion remains high, with 64 per cent of the 600 teenagers surveyed

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admitting to using unauthorised sources. However almost a quarter of those said that they would consider buying music, up from 17 per cent.

'While p2p sharing is still the primary way teens get their music, buying online music is becoming more mainstream,' Piper Jaffray analysts Michael Olson and Gene Munster wrote.

Two years ago the survey found that just 20 per cent obtained their music legally, leading Olson and Munster to conclude that 'as long as there are easy options to download high quality music illegally without significant risk of detection, students will likely favour this method'.

But despite this encouraging news for the music industry and store operators there is as yet no evidence that p2p file sharing is in decline. On the contrary, research firm NPD reported in February that the number of US households engaged in p2p rose by seven per cent in the previous 12 months.