Where do you get your tunes from?

This past week I’ve heard a lot about how much people have changed their music consumption patterns. The usual suspects, iTunes, YouTube, torrents, were of course thrown in as a matter of discussion, and from popular anecdotal advice you could be led to believe that these were the dominant channels of music distribution today.

But if that were true, why aren’t commercial FM stations toppling over like dominoes? Radio has been purportedly dead for years now, which means that the many format radio stations and digital radio streams around today are really just zombies. Cold and soulless they may be, but if they’re still around, they must still be making money.

This article I found on the web gave a better picture of what’s going on. It may be a year old now, but I don’t think things have changed that much since this time last year. Written based on a report based on global consumer surveys, it clearly shows that while computer-based access to music has become a strong contender, traditional mainstream media still held sway.

Interestingly,  the surveys also showed that there were marked regional differences in music consumption. For example more people in India watched video clips on their mobile phones, while in Eastern markets, though they may adore their cute k-pop starts,  consumers aren’t as willing to shell out money just to see them up close.

Interesting points from the article:

•  57% of respondents said they watched music videos on tv, while 46% watched them on the computer
• 1/3 bought physical copies of albums while only 11% bought them online
• 11% of consumers globally admit to consuming counterfeit/pirated music.
•  Brazilians really love their music, while Aussies not so much.