Indian youth keen on paid music downloads: Music Matters survey

India comes a close second after Korea in terms of paying for music downloads, according to the just released Music Matters Synovate Survey 2009. 19 per cent of Indian youth claim to have paid to download music, just behind Korea's 20 per cent of paying public, ranking ahead of China where only 12 per cent claim to pay for music downloads. Interestingly, only 21 per cent of Indian youth claim to have opted for illegal downloads in the last one month as against 55 per cent Chinese youth who claim to have preferred unpaid downloads. The study released at the Nokia Music Connects conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, studied internet users in the age group of 15 to 24 and included 1138 respondents from India. 23 per cent of Indian youth said they spent more time listening to music and 83 per cent said music formed a very important part of their lives. Only eihgt per cent of the respondents said they didn't agree that music was an important part of their life. A R Rahman, Sony Niigaam and Lata Mangeshkar, in that order, were the preferred musicians, among Indian youth.

The mobile phone emerged as the playing device of choice, with 41 per cent of the respondents saying they listen to music on their mobiles. The TV / music channel was the next preferred medium of music consumption, with 18 per cent usage, while the computer was consumed as a playing device by only 15 per cent of the respondents. The radio ranked next with 10 per cent respondents claiming the device helped them to consume music. The MP3 player is yet to catch on in India, with only six per cent of the respondents having access to the device for music consumption. The mobile phone is likely to stay the favourite of the growing generation, with 40 per cent of the respondents saying they would use it in the future as well as a playing device, while 28 per cent said they would use a computer.

The television is still the top choice to watch music videos with 31 per cent Indian youth saying they watch videos on TV, followed by the computer which is the choice of 23 per cent of the youth. 14 per cent use the mobile device for viewing music videos. 85 per cent of the sampled youth said they own mobile phones, and 61 per cent of the respondents said they listen to music on their phones. A whopping 72 per cent said they used the Bluetooth/MMS facility to source music on their phones while 14 per cent directly downloaded the music to their phones. Only nine per cent said they downloaded the music to their computers before transferring it to their phones.

-Radio and Music