Skip to main content

Consumers Buying Music CDs After Sampling

With continued declines in the global music industry that amount to a nearly 25 percent reduction since 2000, recent research from Ipsos now reveals that the proportion of Americans who have purchased CDs in the past six months has dropped approximately 15 percent since 2002.

The Ipsos study also shows that while this decrease is largely attributable to shifting consumer behaviors toward digital music acquisition methods, a majority of Americans continue to purchase CDs by their favorite artists. However, they frequently rely on music downloading for sampling new and unfamiliar music.

The most recent wave of the Ipsos quarterly digital music tracking program, "TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Digital Music Behavior," includes an in-depth examination of fee-based music consumption across physical, online, mobile and satellite channels. Key findings from this recent study include:

- Half (51 percent) of U.S. consumers aged 12 and older purchased a physical CD in the past six months. This represents a decline of roughly 15 percent since 2002, when approximately 60 percent of consumers reported doing so.

- Although overall CD purchasing has declined in recent years, the proportion of Americans purchasing physical CDs off of the Internet has increased, perhaps reflecting both the gradual reduction of retail music outlets in America coupled with increased consumer comfortability with e-commerce.

- The average number of CDs purchased in the past six months is just fewer than three (2.8), and the average total number owned is 78. Teens own the fewest CDs (average of 32), while those consumers aged 18 to 54 own considerably more (upwards of 100).

- For new releases from a favorite artist, physical CDs remain the primary method of acquisition among U.S. Music Downloaders aged 12 or older.

- 62 percent of U.S. Downloaders purchased a physical CD of their favorite artist’s last release versus just 28 percent who paid to download one or more individual tracks.

- Among those who acquired music from this release via more than one channel of acquisition (8 percent of U.S. Downloaders aged 12 and older), a-la-carte downloads were most likely purchased first by 45 percent of these consumers, while only 27 percent purchased the CD first.

- When examining purchases of new music by unfamiliar artists, TEMPO found that 23 percent of U.S. Downloaders purchase a-la-carte digital tracks from unknown artists, but just 17 percent purchased the full-length CD.

"Given the persistence of physical CDs as a means of music acquisition among current Music Downloaders, one might ask how music sales can be down over 20 percent since 2000" comments Matt Kleinschmit, Vice President of Ipsos Insight.

"Data suggest that the answer lies in what could be referred to as the impulse gap. Namely, that the increase in the number of digital music acquisition options -- including on-demand downloading and easy unfettered copying -- have slowly eaten away at consumer impulse music purchases, thus creating a gap in revenue. Where in the past someone may have purchased a CD from a new or unfamiliar artist on a whim, they are increasingly more likely to digitally sample the music before deciding to make a full physical CD purchase."

Popular posts from this blog

Global Digital Business and IT Consulting Outlook

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ

Why Instant Issuance Payment Cards Evolved

The global financial services sector continues to grow as more progressive organizations seek to gain a meaningful competitive advantage from their digital transformation initiatives. Across the globe, many regions are seeing a significant rise in 'instant issuance' activity from a physical and digital perspective, from both traditional and emerging innovative banking institutions. Digital Payments Market Development Customers increasingly demand instant access to banking services, with physical instant issuance enabling them to leave their branch equipped with a ready-to-go payment card. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the market for instantly issued physical payment cards will increase from 243.2 million shipments in 2022 to a forecast of 471.1 million in 2027. "Critically, instant issuance of payment cards is no longer limited to the physical," said Sam Gazeley, industry analyst at ABI Research . Indeed, the growing digitization of p