SAN FRANCISCO -- Nearly half of all teenagers bought no compact discs in 2007, accelerating the music industry's painful transition from CDs to digital downloads, according to a report released today.
One big beneficiary: Apple Inc. Its iTunes music store, which sells only digital downloads, jumped ahead of Best Buy Co. to become the No. 2 U.S. music seller. Apple trailed only Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which mostly sells CDs.
The music industry has grappled with how to replace its rapidly disappearing CD sales with digital downloads. The report by research firm NPD Group offered a window into how quickly the change was happening and who was leading it.
The amount of music legally bought from online music stores was up -- 29 million people bought music online last year, a 21% jump from 24 million in 2006. But that boost didn't offset the drop in CD sales and the effects of people illegally downloading music. Last year, about 1 million consumers stopped buying CDs, according to NPD.
Going to a store and buying a CD is no longer a rite of passage for many teenagers. But illegally downloading a song might be. Last year, 48% of teenagers did not buy a single CD, compared with 38% in 2006. And illegally downloading music continued to grow among teenagers, the report said.
The average Internet user acquired 6% more music last year via legal downloads, CDs and illegal file-sharing, the report said. But they spent 10% less on music -- $40 per user, compared with $44 a year before.
The report underlined a generational split. The increase in legal online sales was driven by people age 36 to 50, the report said, giving the music industry an opportunity to target these customers by tapping into its older catalogs.
source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-music27feb27,1,5116325.story
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interesting....to me at least.
