MUMBAI: More people are buying more digital music downloads in the United States, entertainment market research company NPD said on Tuesday.
A new study released by NPD on Tuesday shows that the number of US Internet users paying for digital music increased to 36 million in2008, up more than eight million compared with a year ago.
Purchases of online digital music downloads increased by 29 per cent since last year and now account for 33 per cent of all music tracks purchased in the United States, the study said.
Meanwhile, it also found the trend of CD sales decline continued with nearly 17 million fewer CD buyers in 2008 compared to the prior year.
“Consumers’ primary reason for not purchasing CDs was that they were spending less on entertainment overall, because of the recession,” NPD said in a press release.
“Among the reasons consumers cited for preferring digital music over CDs was that they could choose only the songs they wanted to purchase, and could immediately download and listen to their purchases,” the press release added.