Mercer Study Finds That Young People Are Turning to PCs for Their Music

13-Apr-01

In the intense publicity and public debate surrounding Napster and other music file-sharing services, nearly all of the attention has been focused on the personal computer as a means of acquiring music. However, a new study by Mercer Management Consulting indicates that the role of the PC as a means of discovering, storing, and listening to music will be critical in determining how online music evolves and what impact it will have on the traditional music industry.The study, which comprised two separate surveys of 1800 U.S. college students and a series of in-depth interviews, was conducted by Mercer in conjunction with the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM).The study revealed that the personal computer has emerged as the center of the listening experience, accounting for one-third of all hours spent listening to music among the sample of college students. ""The same students have built ëparallel collectionsí of music on their PCs that rival their CD-based collections in size,"" says Jon Fay, the Mercer Vice President who led the research effort. ""However, these parallel collections often include different types of music and may serve different needs compared to traditional collections.""For many college students, who represent a key music-buying segment, the personal computer has emerged as the instrument of choice for music listening. Only about half of the students surveyed (48 percent) reported that they have a component stereo system at college. By contrast, nearly all (98 percent) have a personal computer, and the vast majority of their computers have CD-ROM drives, stereo speakers, and broadband Internet connections.It is not surprising, therefore, that one-third of the studentsí listening time has shifted to the computer, which is somewhat less than the 42 percent of the time spent listening to traditional CD/tape players, but more than the 23 percent of the time spent listening to the radio. Half the students had been to a party where the DJ used a computer (instead of a stereo) to play music, and nearly one in ten reported taking a personal computer to a party to play music.""For the most part,"" Fay says, ""the collections of music on these studentsí computers were not ërippedí from their own CD collections."" He points out that of the 394 individual songs stored as MP3 files on the average respondentís computer, 79 percent had been downloaded. ""In fact, 61 percent of the students reported that they had never ripped a CD, and among the downloaded songs, only 62 percent came from Napster, indicating that students have already begun to work around the leading file-sharing system,"" Fay adds.Hereís a breakdown of studentsí responses when they were asked to describe their PC-based music collections:- 83 percent of the downloads resulted from a specific search, not online browsing. - 91 percent of the time, students downloaded only one or a few songs from an album. - 50 percent of the downloaded songs represented alternative, mainstream, or older works. - 26 percent of the time, the downloaded songs were rare, live, or out-of-print recordings To a significant degree, students appear to download tracks when they want only a few songs from an album (which is consistent with the recent dramatic decline in sales of music singles) or want to sample alternative types of music. Moreover, students reported that for their favorite artists, they prefer to purchase and own traditional CDs, viewing the physical albums as valued collectionsMercerís Fay says that the key to the music industryís success will be whether online music can be positioned as a distinct medium, complementary to the traditional music media of CDs and tapes. ""Such positioning could open up significant growth opportunities for music companies and avoid the worst cannibalization scenarios, as more people become familiar with listening to music on PCs and portable MP3 players,"" he explains. For more information about Mercer Management Consulting, visit www.mercermc.com.

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