Almost six in 10 (57%) online US consumers had watched a music video online in the last three months in September 2010, according to a new report from Nielsen Music. Data from “The Hyper-Fragmented World of Music” indicates this makes watching online videos much more popular than other digital music-related activities such as downloading a song (close to 50% participation) and music streaming (roughly 25% participation).
Younger Consumers Watch More Online Music Videos
The younger-than-20-to-24 year-old age group can be identified as the primary consumer of online videos both on computers and mobile devices, although other age segments are not far behind. The younger the consumer, the more likely they are to have consumed music videos on either a computer or a mobile phone. For example, a little more than 70% of consumers younger than 25 watch online videos, compared to a little more than 30% of consumers 60 and older.
In addition, online video consumption via computer is more popular than watching on a mobile phone across all age groups. But as age rises, the disparity between watching on a computer and on a mobile phone also rises.
Paid Mobile Downloads Most Popular in Asia-Pacific
Eighteen percent of global online respondents reported having legally downloaded a paid full track to their mobile phone in the previous three months in the Q3 2010 Nielsen Global Survey.
Notably, this popularity is not evenly distributed across regions, being significantly more popular in the Asia Pacific region (a little more than 30% of online consumers) than in Europe or North America (about 5% of online consumers in each region).
Nielsen says this can be explained by the fact that Asia Pacific consumers are more accustomed to purchasing products via their mobiles (with Asia Pacific respondents to Nielsen Global Survey Q3 2010 are more likely to make purchases, sales, or payments using mobile phones than Europeans or North Americans, at 11% compared to 3%).
21-24-Yr-Olds Lead Paid Mobile Dowloads
Despite regional differences in popularity and consumption methods, Nielsen analysis indicates the profile of a “primary” consumer of legal digital music tracks can be identified as a man in his early 20s. More than 20% of global respondents aged 25-29 paid to download a music track to their computer in the three months prior to questioning. This figure rises to 30% for the 21-24 sample where mobile phones are concerned.
From age 30 onward, both computer and mobile legal downloader percentages drop regularly and significantly, with a more negative trend for mobile access.
Juniper: Mobile Music to Generate $5.5B
Music consumed on mobile handsets will globally generate $5.5 billion annually in 2015, according to a recent white paper from Juniper Research. This represents a 77% rise from $3.1 billion from 2010.
About the Data: 26,644 online consumers in 53 markets across the globe were surveyed during September 2010.
