Whose Buying Music Today Compared to 10 Years Ago?

There was a survey conducted recently by MusicWatch that looked at the demographics of digital music and CD buyers in 2004 compared to 2014.

• The largest demographics of CD buyers was age 36-50 in 2004 (25%) but CD buyers were age 50+ in 2014 (35%).
• In 2004 ages 13-17 purchased the most digital downloads (25%) followed by ages 36-50 at 24%.  In 2014, ages 36 to 50 purchased the most digital downloads at (26%) and ages 18 to 25 was second (23%).
• Woman purchased more CDs than men in both 2004 and 2014 (5% margin of purchase over men).
• Men purchased more digitial music in 2004 (60 to 40% margin over women) but in 2014 women purchased more than men (53 to 47% margin).

Despite the survey results, and trends showing a decrease in CDs and digital download sales, it’s expected that streaming music will be the dominant distribution method…unless a new distribution method takes the industry by storm.