While traditional radio remains the most popular means of accessing music, radio listening has declined 4 percent in the last year while listening to music on a computer has increased by 22 percent, according to a survey of 5,000 consumers conducted by NPD Group. The study noted that 194 million people reported listening to the radio in March, while 77.2 million listened on a computer. Online radio listening increased 18 percent to 53.5 million, as did free streaming of online music, which was up 37 percent to 46.1 million consumers. NPD also found that the number of consumers ripping music onto their computers increased 102 percent from a year ago, while transferring music to MP3 players jumped 127 percent and paying to download songs grew 93 percent. "The rise of digital listening and storage for music continues unabated this year," said NPD Group's Russ Crupnick. "Technology companies are providing new tools to consumers in the form of powerful music-enabled PCs and portable music players, music companies are answering the call for more content and consumers are responding positively."
The global cloud computing market is undergoing new significant growth, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and the demand for flexible, scalable infrastructure. The recent market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) provides compelling evidence of this transformation, highlighting the accelerating growth in cloud infrastructure spending and the pivotal role of AI in shaping the industry's future trajectory. Shared Infrastructure Market Development The study reveals a 36.9 percent year-over-year worldwide increase in spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments in the first quarter of 2024, reaching $33 billion. This growth substantially outpaced non-cloud infrastructure spending, which saw a modest 5.7 percent increase to $13.9 billion during the same period. The surge in cloud infrastructure spending was partially fueled by an 11.4 percent growth in unit demand, influenced by higher average selling prices, primari