A Million Fewer Paid Downloads in 2009

Filed in archive Business on February 25, 2010

© jrossol

Research firm NPD Group reports that there were a million fewer buyers of digital downloads in 2009 than in 2008.

"Russ Crupnick, an NPD senior industry analyst, told a gathering of music and technology executives on Wednesday at the Digital Music East conference here not to panic," writes CNET News' Greg Sandoval. "Those who stopped purchasing music online were mostly older consumers who came online for the first time in 2007 and 2008, tried out downloading music, then lost interest, Crupnick said."

"Meanwhile, the amount consumers are spending on digital song downloads rose from an average of $33 per year to $50 per year," writes Digital Media Wire's Mark Hefflinger. "NPD also found that free Internet radio services like Pandora lead to a 41 percent increase in paid downloads, while free, on-demand services like Spotify actually led to a 13 percent drop in paid downloads."

More here from AfterDawn.com ... and more here from Music Ally.