Fifty Percent of Teens Not Buying CDs

Research firm The NPD Group issued a press release today with results from their studies of music consumers (thanks to YPulse for the lead on this). They say that people are buying more music, but fewer CDs. One of the most interesting findings is that nearly 50% of U.S. teens did not buy a CD in 2007. If that's not evidence of the imminent demise of CDs, I'm not sure what is. According to NPD:

"...the amount of music that consumers acquired in the U.S. increased by 6 percent in 2007. A sharp increase in legal digital download revenues could not offset declines in CD sales, which resulted in a net 10 percent decline in music spending (from $44 to $40 per capita among Internet users)...

NPD estimates that one million consumers dropped out of the CD buyer market in 2007, a flight led by younger consumers. In fact, 48 percent of U.S. teens did not purchase a single CD in 2007, compared to 38 percent in 2006...

Legal music downloads now account for 10 percent of the music acquired in the US...Apple’s iTunes Music Store became the second-largest music retailer in the U.S. after Wal-Mart, based on the amount of music sold during 2007..."