The report's authors estimate that during 2006, Europeans will fork out more than 385m euros (£260m) on digital music, most of which will be spent at Apple's iTunes Store. However, the study shows 83% of iPod owners don't regularly purchase digital music, if at all. Only a mere 17% buy and download music often, usually single tracks, at least once a month.
According to the study, only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores on average. The remainder will ripped from CD's or downloaded from peer-to-peer networks.
The report also warns that the importance of "free" to digital music fans should not be swept aside. Some firms have already made inroads towards a future of free digital music such as SpiralFrog, which has announced that it will use an ad-supported business model rather than charge consumers.
Source:
BBC