Highlights of a new NPD Group study:
- Underscoring the increasing importance of sites like MySpace for music discovery, 19% of those surveyed said they listen to music through social networking sites, up 4% from a year ago
- Almost half of US teens listen to music on social networks up from 37% in 2007. Among college-age fans the percentage rose to 41% from 30% the previous year.
- The number of U.S. consumers buying CDs fell by 17M in 2008.
- The decline in CD purchases was most prevalent among teens and consumers 50 and over.
- The number of people purchasing digital music increased by more than 8 million in 2008 to 36 million.
- Digital music download purchases increased 29% in 2008 over '07 and now account for 33% of all tracks purchased in the US.
- Many consumers said they were spending less on entertainment as a result of the recession.
- Many said they were turning to digital downloads as a way to buy individual tracks, rather than having to purchase an entire album.
- All of these trends are evidence of the continued transformation of the music industry.
