While the music industry continues to blame illegal file-sharing for its declining revenues, music customers themselves have something different to say: namely, most music fans think that the declining quality of music and expensive CD prices are to blame for the industry’s woes.

A poll sponsored by the Associated Press and Rolling Stone found that, of 1,000 music listeners surveyed last week, 74 percent believed that CDs are too expensive, and 58 percent said the quality of music is “getting worse.” Nearly two-thirds believed that competition from other media, a decline in new-music quality, or too-expensive CDs were responsible for lower sales; only one-third pointed to illegal downloading or CD burning.

And the kicker: 92 percent said they never download music using a P2P service, and 80 percent said they think free music downloading is stealing.