Port Washington, N.Y. — Among P2P file sharing sites, Limewire took a 62 percent share of P2P music downloads in 2006, but torrent services gained in popularity, The NPD Group found.

The average Limewire user downloaded 309 music files in 2006, up 49 percent from the previous year, NPD said.

Torrent services such as BitTorrent account for an increasing number of of files downloaded illegally per user, though some sites have recently begun selling songs authorized by copyright holders, NPD added.