Most iPod owners
reported that on average, only 20 of the tracks on their iPods would have been bought from the iTunes shop.
Far more important, they
described was free music ripped from CDs someone already owned or acquired from file-sharing sites.
83% of iPod owners
defined that they do not buy digital music regularly. The minority, 17%, buy and download music, usually single tracks, at least once per month.
On average, the study
declares that only 5% of the music on an iPos will be bought from online music stores. The rest will be from CDs the owner of an MP3 player already has or tracks they have downloaded from file-sharing sites.
“It is not instructive to think of portable media player owners nor iPod owners specifically, as homogenous groups”
reflected the report.
It
demonstrated “Digital music buyers do no necessarily stop file-sharing upon buying legally.”
The importance of “free” to digital music fans should not be underestimated,
suggested the report, and should be a factor for newer digital music firms, such as Spiral Frog, which use an ad-supported model.
“Digital music purchasing has not yet fundamentally changed the way in which digital music customers buy music.”
Predicted the report.