One quarter of all German internet users order music CDs and DVDs over the internet or download music. In total, about 11 million Germans have at least once in their lives bought music from the internet. This was revealed by a study carried out by BITKOM. One finding was particularly surprising: 31% of all housewives using the internet have already bought music online.
Among employees using the internet 28% buy their music online. For students, apprentices and jobless people the respective figures are 13 %, 9 % and 8 %. However, the ranking published may give only a limited picture of the real situation, given that it took into account legal downloads only.
Music downloads are most popular among people aged between 30 and 49. In this age group 31% of users downloaded music. Among users older than 65 years of age, 25% have already bought music over the internet.
Among internet users younger than 29 years of age only 19% downloaded music from the internet. However, BITKOM assumes that in this age group quite a lot of illegal downloads are carried out which were not accounted for in the study in question..
The German market for music downloads on personal computers grew by one third to 80 million Euros last year, according to another survey by the association for research on consumption (GfK). Furthermore, there was a two-digit growth rate with regard to downloads of songs and music albums onto mobile phones. In this market turnover amounted to 8.8 million Euros last year without taking into account turnover generated through the download of traditional ring tones. 