Study: Digital music purchases increase in U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17 (Chinese media) -- More people are buying more digital

music downloads in the United States, entertainment market research company NPD

said on Tuesday.

A new study released by NPD showed that the number of U.S. Internet users

paying for digital music increased to 36 million in2008, up more than 8 million

compared with a year ago.

Purchases of online digital music downloads increased by 29 percent since

last year and now account for 33 percent of all music tracks purchased in the

United States, the study said.

Meanwhile, it also found the trend of CD sales decline continued with

nearly 17 million fewer CD buyers in 2008 compared to the prior year.

"Consumers' primary reason for not purchasing CDs was that they were

spending less on entertainment overall, because of the recession," NPD said in a

press release.

"Among the reasons consumers cited for preferring digital music over CDs

was that they could choose only the songs they wanted to purchase, and could

immediately download and listen to their purchases," the press release added.