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..."

Assorted indie music news items

A few items of interest in the news today related to indie music. Indie record label TVT is filing for bankruptcy (New York Times), indie-focused digital distribution organization IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) announces they will sponsor party at SXSW featuring a number of independent artists in March (...love their record insert logo!), a new indie electronic music portal and social networking site called Electrogarden Network that features blogs, online radio stations, charts and video focused on industrial, gothic and electronic music officially launched, and Spacelab reports on the Forrester Research study-"The End of the Music Industry as We Know It" that predicts that digital downloads will overtake CD sales in the next few years.

Radio's Lowly Position in Bedroom Project Study

A presentation during Radio Active: The Canadian Radio Conference (part of Canada's upcoming Music Week in March) will discuss the Bedroom Project, an ethnographic study of the media habits of young people (17-28 years old) conducted by Arbitron. According to the executive summary of the study,

"Radio is often relegated to a secondary media choice, and an alarming number of Bedroomers do not have (or rarely use) an AM/FM radio in their homes. In some of the interviews, radio is a nonfactor until the required trip to the car. For those who don’t have a radio in their primary dwelling, its role in their overall media/entertainment scheme is minimal. For everyone else, there is typically more enthusiasm about other entertainment choices and newer technologies. Radio’s lack of CVC (control, variety, and choice), combined with perceptions of excessive commercials and being 'old school'—often drops its status among other media. As noted, most of the meaningful radio discussions in these interviews occurred when we visited the respondents’ vehicles. To that end, radio’s traditional listening locations are being threatened by new devices. Portability has been usurped by personal MP3 players, in-home radio listenership is overshadowed by myriad gadgets, and even in-car listening is being challenged by current and future MP3 connectivity."

The Bedroom Project website is also hosting some video clips from the interviews with teens and young adults from L.A. and Columbus, Ohio discussing the role that radio plays in their lives. One respondent actually mentions how much she loves radio and likes the fact that she can select stations based on her mood.

Based on the report and clips, it should be an intriguing, yet depressing presentation for the commercial radio audience at this conference! On Arbitron's website you can access additional free reports about radio, including format trends and trends in listenership by age.