Rich Fiscus
19 Dec 2007 14:45
Maybe there are bigger differences betwen PC and Mac users than it would seem on the surface. Market research company The NPD Group is reporting that Mac users seem more likely to pay for music than their PC using counterparts.
“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,” according to Russ Crupnick, vice president and entertainment industry analyst, The NPD Group. “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.”
If these numbers aren't simply a fluke, the remainder of NPD Group's analysis would appear to be good news for the music business. It indicates that Apple's share of the personal computing market is on the rise, and suggests that as more consumers buy iPods and Macs, Apple's sales model will convert them to paying customers from pirates.
“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,” Crupnick said. “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.”
Source: Press Release