Mac users more likely to purchase digital music than PC owners
Consumers that own an Apple Macintosh are much more likely to purchase digital music than consumers that use a Windows-based personal computer, says a new report from consumer market research firm The NPD Group.
NPD, which used responses from about 5,000 consumers in its quarterly digital music survey, says that 50% of Macintosh owners in the third quarter purchased and downloaded music compared with just 16% of consumers that have a PC.
“There’s still a cultural divide between Apple consumers and the rest of the computing world, and that’s especially apparent when it comes to the way they interact with music,” says NPD vice president and entertainment industry analyst Russ Crupnick. “Mac users are not only more active in digital music, they are also more likely to buy CDs, which helps debunk the myth that digital music consumers stop buying music in CD format.”
Overall, more than 32% of Mac users report purchasing CDs in the third quarter of 2007 compared with just 28% of PC users, according to NPD. In addition to purchasing CDs and downloading music, the survey also finds that Mac users are also more likely to listen to music and watch videos on their MP3-players and computers. 34% of Mac users had uploaded music to their MP3 players compared with 16% of PC users. And 56% of Mac users listen to music files on their computers compared with 31% of PC users, NPD says.
“While the market for digital music is growing, it’s growing slower than many would like it to—CD sales are still declining and digital music has not replaced those lost sales,” says Crupnick. “The more consumers become comfortable paying for digital music, the more chance they will evangelize to others. And at this point in the game, it’s the growing base of Apple consumers that are the industry’s low-hanging fruit when it comes to converting from physical to digital music.”
Back...
