In a report about their Net Usage Index for Digital Music, Akamai Technologies, Inc. conveyed findings concerning consumer online music habits. According to the index, global digital music Web sites receive daily peaks in excess of half a million visitors per minute. The data also showed that Sunday is the slowest day for these sites.
The Index, which utilizes data collected over the past three months, showed that North America, Asia, and Europe sent the majority of consumers to music sites. Peak traffic happens in the middle of the week in North America and Europe, but occurs closer to the end of the week in Asia and Australia.
Akamai also performed a separate survey of 200 respondents from 19 to 68 years of age, with a gender split of 58% female and 41% male.
The results of the survey indicated that 86% of the respondents own a portable music player, and that 76% of the respondents spent $1 to $5 per week on music downloads, while 14% spend $5 to $10 per week, and 9% spent $10 to $20 per week. Ninety percent say that they download at least one song per week.
Of the respondents, 82% prefer a pay-per-download model, while 9% prefer an ad-sponsored model, and 9% prefer a subscription model.
Forty-two percent say they are loyal to just one online music source, while 29% are loyal to two.
Fifty-five percent of the respondents stream music, and 65% stream music online during the work day.
Gerrit Meier, Senior VP and General Manager of Clear Channel Radio’s Online Music and Radio unit, said that “there’s no doubt that streaming has become an increasingly important part of our audience, which means that we can not tolerate dropped broadcasts.”
All of this amounts to encouraging signs for a blooming online music industry, which is expected to grow sevenfold by 2010. Revenues from music downloads and subscription services are expected to exceed CD sales on the Internet by next year.
Sources:
http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/
2006/press_121106.html
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624167
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