According to NPD's consumer tracking, 33% of Twitter users reported buying a CD in the prior 3 months, and 34% said they had purchased a digital download. That compares positively to overall web users at 23% and 16% respectively.. When Twitter users purchased music, they also spent 77% more money on digital downloads than did their non-Twitter counterparts.
Twitter users are also much more likely than average net users to be engaged in online music activities:
- 33% listened to music on a social networking site
- 1% listened to online radio compared to 22% among all web users
- 39% watched a music video online (vs 25%)
- 2X more likely to visit MySpace Music and Pandora.
“Twitter has the potential to help foster the discovery of new music, and improve targeted marketing of music to groups of highly-involved and technologically savvy consumers, but it has to be done right," Crupnick said. “There must be a careful balance struck between entertainment and direct conversation on one hand, and marketing on the other. Used properly Twitter has the power to entertain -- and to motivate music fans to purchase more new albums, downloads, merchandise, and concert tickets."
