I read in the Media Guardian that only 17% of European iPod users pay for music downloads on a monthly basis. This is not to say that the download market is insignificant. Apple’s iTunes store had sold 200 million downloads at 79p each in Europe by last month. However, it does show once again that we net-users are addicted to freebies.  It bodes well for podcasts, which are a largely free medium. As I’ve said before, this business model is about brand-building and spin-offs, so that you can try to make in-roads into reputations of the likes of the BBC - which also is not big on selling things. People still pay for books. They still put up with a certain amount of advertising as a necessary evil. This is where the money is.
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One Comment
It is not clear if people using portable music players are downloading illegally or if they are ripping music from CDs. CD sales still outsell downloads by a large margin. It may be that most people are buying their music legally on CDs. Also, it may be that many people buy music more sporadically than monthly.