Despite the boom in digital, CD remains the format of choice for most UK consumers according to new research from The Leading Question/Music Ally.

 

The study also found that the users of digital access models actually buy more CDs and downloads than the average consumer.

 

The annual Speakerbox survey found that, overall, 73% of music buyers prefer CDs. Even among younger consumers, that many had presumed were digital-only, the numbers were still in favour of physical formats. A total of 66% of 14-18-year-olds said they still prefer CDs over downloading.

 

Interestingly, physical is still the main format for piracy. While 17% of those surveyed said they fileshared tracks, a total of 23% said they burned CD-Rs.

 

The Leading Question CEO Tim Walker says, “The continued popularity of the CD should be looked upon as an opportunity. We believe that labels and online stores could and should be doing more to build on music fans’ familiarity with CDs to provide them with additional digital content and to use the CD as a bridge into the digital world.”

 

Perhaps the most surprising finding was that users of subscription music services and streaming music services still buy a significant amount of physical product.

 

Those who use services like Napster spend an average of £16.87 a month on CDs compared to an overall average of £11.37 a month. Those who use streaming services like Spotify spend £12.17 a month on CDs and £7.02 on downloads. This is against a survey average of £3.81 a month on downloads.

 

This, the survey claims, is proof that digital access models are not a substitution for most consumers and are, in fact, a gateway into ownership, be it MP3s or CDs.

 

Digital made up 20% of recorded music sales globally in 2008 according to IFPI figures, growing from 15% a year earlier.

Quite interesting.

I don't believe this frankly.

Id prefer CDS but there isnt anyway which does them now really we used to have a hmv but that closed down and asda has stopped doing them

+there are the probolythe people who only but 1 single a year so they should be surverying peioople who get 5 singles a month

It entirely backs up my theory that streaming sites (in that report the excellent part Peter Gabriel owned we7 has been missed out), far from destroying music sales are like the equivalent of renting something (like a House) before deciding to buy.

 

I.E. Streaming is the next generation of taping off the Radio (when Michael Jackson was popular first time around!)

 

Hence, I will no longer buy an album on CD that when I brought it home turned out to be awful to my ears (coughs: Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future); put it this way it has certainly saved me wasting money buying La Roux's very patchy debut album, that pre streaming sites would likely be sitting in my CD collection heading quickly to the bottom of my pile of CDs on this desk before being filed away in a shoebox. :lol:

 

For example, I doubt I would have bought Lady GaGa's album without hearing it entirely on Spotify, and I certainly would not have bought Lily Allen's 2nd album if I had not listened to it first on streaming and realised unlike her debut (which I bought to my cost), there is very little filler on it.

 

As download sales continue to rise, I think this shows how the Record Industry screwed themselves really really badly when they failed to embrace the Napster technology of the late 1990s, instead they fought against it to their cost, causing half a generation of teenagers underground into the habit of downloading tracks illegally.

I prefer CD's...even those I download I burn to physical format....

An abstract piece of data simply cannot compare to the buzz of buying a new CD, flicking through the CD inlay and getting a nice whiff of that "new" synthetic smell which resembles raw celery... or is that last bit just me? Does anyone else give a newly bought CD a whiff?

Edited July 17, 200915 yr by ScottyEm

An abstract piece of data simply cannot compare to the buzz of buying a new CD, flicking through the CD inlay and getting a nice whiff of that "new" synthetic smell which resembles raw celery... or is that last bit just me? Does anyone else give a newly bought CD a whiff?

 

you are sooo right... ain't nuthin' like the real thing honey.... :yahoo:

the only difference between 10 years ago and now is that now u can get to hear the CD before buying it through YouTube, amazon, spotify and other sites while 10 years ago we used to buy a lot of CD's which we regretted buying later...

that, and illegal downloading decreased music sales worldwide, especially in the US where sales are down 60% since 2002...

Edited July 18, 200915 yr by Big Mistake

i've never bought music online cos i don't have a credit card and i know that i probably wouldn't be able to stop clicking away buying things so instead i just buy physical albums and the odd physical single. i'd probably buy singles online if i had a credit card though cos they're much more expensive in the shops! the only way i've ever been able to buy stuff online is when i bought myself an itunes gift card so that i could get some movies from itunes that i've never been able to find anywhere else and i'd probably do that again rather than bothering with a credit card.

I love the physical formats. I just feel that i have nothing but a loan of a track I download.

For me it's simple...download and suffer a crash and your purchases may be gone. Own the physical and you have it forever

For me it's simple...download and suffer a crash and your purchases may be gone. Own the physical and you have it forever

 

Not if you back it up onto CD or copy it to your mp3 player....

A download to a CDR isnt a proper physical, its a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy........§

Yes, only carelessness would have your purchases removed forever.

 

Do they mean albums? I can't see this being true of the single.

 

 

I'm not sure if there's a thread regarding HMV and their stocking of singles, but both HMVs near me (Burton, Derby) appear to have stopped selling singles, sadly. :(

Mr nearest HMV (Leeds :P) only sells recent singles I think, but there's loads of albums old and new

Dowloading is ok for a temporaty situation, and hear whether a CD is good or not,

but longterm the CD album or single is much better.

 

a room full of CDR's isnt that attractive as room stocked with "Actual Physical" CD's

For me it's simple...download and suffer a crash and your purchases may be gone. Own the physical and you have it forever

Because CDs are indestructable....

An abstract piece of data simply cannot compare to the buzz of buying a new CD, flicking through the CD inlay and getting a nice whiff of that "new" synthetic smell which resembles raw celery... or is that last bit just me? Does anyone else give a newly bought CD a whiff?

 

Ermmm.. no, not really *backs away slowly* :unsure:

 

I much prefer the phyisical cd and will always prefer it, downloads are convenient until you can get the real thing but for me long live the cd. What i love about real cd;s and covers is when you look through your cd;s you see the cd and you go oh i havent listened to that in ages, with downloads the cd has no real identity especially if you do up mixed cd's.