The CRIA is probably going to want its money back.

The Canadian Recording Industry Association, which typically commissions studies that showcase the problems posed by peer-to-peer networks, released a conspicuously un-trumpeted study this week loaded with valuable nuggets about various demographics and the sources of the music on their hard drives.

University of Ottawa professor Dr. Michael Geist has a solid rundown here, (or you can rifle through the 144 pages of statistical goodness here) but here's a few tidbits that I found particularly revealing:

P2P influence on purchasing: 25% of respondents said they never bought music after listening to it as a P2P track, which means 75% of those who've downloaded music from P2P networks went on to buy that music. The highest percentage of buyers belonged to the 13- to 17-year-old demographic, which also happens to be the most prolific purchasing group, buying an average of 11.6 CDs or DVDs in the past six months. 18- to 24-year-olds buy 10.9 CDs and DVDs.

Top sources of music among those who download music from P2P services:

• Ripped copies of their own CDs (36.4%)
• P2P downloads (32.6%)
• Paid downloads (20.1%)
• Shared music from friends (8.8%)
• Downloads from artist sites (5.6%)
• Other sources (2.9%)

So, even among those who download music from P2P services, store-bought CDs remain the largest source of music. Not that that should be surprising. For all the hue and cry about waning music sales, it wasn't that long ago that sales of recorded music were at all-time highs and nearly all of it was in the form of CDs. It will be interesting to see how these numbers change over time. I'm torn between speculating that the percentage of music ripped from CDs will go down and that P2P downloads will continue to whet appetites for the fully packaged, high-bitrate versions available on CD.