Friday, February 1, 2008

"Study claims most kids pay for online music"

from wired.com - by Eliot Van Buskirk

A study from the NPD group revealed that kids aged 9-14 -- the ever-so-valuable "tween" demographic -- prefer iTunes to peer-to-peer services and even MySpace when it comes to acquiring music online.

Here's where the 70 percent of tweens who download digital music in an average month are getting their tunes, according to the survey, which was emailed out to a representative slice of the population with kids aged 2-14 (3,376 respondents):

  • Apple iTunes: 49 percent
  • Limewire: 26 percent
  • MySpace: 16 percent

NPD entertainment industry analyst Russ Crupnick said "it's encouraging that so many young consumers are acquiring digital music the legal way -- by paying for it." (Ostensibly, these kids also make their money the old fashioned way -- they earn it.)

Crupnick also took parents to task, despite these encouraging numbers for the music industry. He said it's "surprising how unsupervised [tweens] are." Two thirds of respondents said they are allowed to access the Web themselves, without adult supervision.

One obstacle continues to plague the music industry as it reaches out to its bread-and-butter demographic, those Hanna Montana-loving tweens: none of them have credit cards.

Crupnick points to answers: "The industry can still do more to promote specific ways children can obtain digital music legally, through pre-paid accounts and gift cards. Another potential way to reach kids is through industry-sanctioned ad-supported Web destinations where kids can obtain digital music safely and legally."

(via billboard)

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