Top iPad Music Apps (a/o May 23rd):
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But wait: wouldn't kids be the most progressive media consumers, the ones most comfortable with digital intangibility and conditional ownership? Guess not: according to a study shared by NPD Group, kids between the ages of 2 and 14 in the US still overwhelmingly purchase physical goods. 
That is, 79 percent of their entertainment purchases by value - across all media types - are of the tangible variety. "For every dollar kids (ages 2-14) spend on entertainment content, $0.79 goes to physical format content and $0.21 goes towards digital format content," the report authors shared with Digital Music News.
Oddly, the stat seems to fit. In a presentation earlier this year, NPD Group analyst Russ Crupnick reported that 55 percent of music buyers - across all ages - are still solely purchasing CDs, though the broader number of buyers is shrinking.
Keep in mind that physical assets typically fetch a higher markup, therefore its value-share is naturally stronger. And, a lot of this is being paid for by parents (and, parents filled out these consumer surveys). That said, the overbearing weight of physical seems incongruous with what this generation should be doing: after all, these are post-Napster kids, with very little attachment to things like record stores, vinyl, or album ownership.
And, NPD found that most of the acquisition is happening on the music side. In terms of collections - across both physical and digital formats - music accounts for 72 percent of all media, followed by movies, games, TV shows, books, and apps.
Perhaps things are all changing so slow, though physical is an ice-block that continues to thaw. Just two years ago, $0.85 of every dollar was going to physical. "While the majority of kids' entertainment content is still acquired in a physical format, digitally-acquired content has grown substantially over the last two years at 14 percentage points for music," the research group noted.
Comments Closed
@yudhishthu Tuesday, October 18, 2011
I have two issues with this data: (1) don't most kids aged 2-14 have their parents - who are older - buy stuff for them? So the bias towards physical represents those of their parents, not them? and (2) If a 2-14 yr old doesn't have an iPod Touch, then yeah most music and video will be in DVD/CD format. I would like to see this data broken out by kids who own/have access to an iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad versus not.
Chris Tuesday, October 18, 2011
...or maybe kids 2-14 still want to have something to show for their (or mom's) purchase. I have three kids (4-7-10) who still like to look at the photos in the CD sleeve (regardless of how small they are), they want to read and learn the lyrics and they are happy, if not excited, to transfer the music on to their digital devices. I'm not saying physical is making a comeback but it's demise is way too premature.
av Wednesday, October 19, 2011
you took the words right out of my mouth. study seems quite flawed given your point.
Maxwellian Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I have two issues with this data: (1) don't most kids aged 2-14 have their parents - who are older - buy stuff for them? So the bias towards physical represents those of their parents, not them?
And so what? I think you're pointing out WHY this group might be 'buying' what it does not necessarily pointing out some flaw in the study.
::MW
Alex Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Also, kids don't have credit cards and are not technically allowed to use any sites (under the age of 13). So how would they acquire digitally? I agree that parents can barely handle their own accounts, much less managing someone else's.
CraigDiPaolo Tuesday, October 18, 2011
There's this fallacy that digitial represents the clean and forward progression forward from the backward physical format. Then why is vinyl so popular? there's a piece missing
But if you're a kid of that age then one didn't follow the other historically, you make whatever choice and keep in mind --- there's nothing inherently bad about the CD, esp. since you can rip and change it into other formats.
@mediajorge Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Jorge
Who knew 2 yr-olds were shopping for tunes?
Suzanne Lainson Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Two other ideas to factor in:
1. Kids are collectors. There's always something at school that all the kids want to own. While CDs haven't been collectibles for a long time, they are still a physical object which kids can show their friends.
2. Kids are impulse buyers. It's hard for parents to get out of a store without buying kids something. So it might as well be a CD as anything else.
Versus Wednesday, October 19, 2011
This is a deceptive measure. It's simply harder to pirate physical goods. It takes more effort and materials to duplicate CDs illegally; pirating online is much easier.
So the % of music "consumed" (awful term) by "kids" (??) which is digital must be much higher than this.
Another factor: "Kids" without credit cards could still spend their lunch money on a CD, but not on an online download purchase.
- Versus
MalcolmG Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Since apps can't be acquired physically, shoudn't this be factored out of the equation? To that point, is Angry Birds and their ilk considered a game or an app? Most of my children's purchases are games in the app store.
lsapadin Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The key phrase is: "though the broader number of buyers is shrinking." Most kids don't buy music. So these stats apply to a shrinking sample that is subject to all the factors described by others: no charge cards, parents buying, etc.
JD Wednesday, October 19, 2011
This is a joke. I love these articles...as record stores are closing by the 100's. A complete joke.
Glad to hear everything is just fine in the music business!
@cheristark Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Cheri Stark
It's not all digital in the music industry.
@musicregistry Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Stephen Trumbull
Fascinating!
@inxu Thursday, October 20, 2011
ingrid stroom
Physical is still important!
Bill Rosenblatt Thursday, October 20, 2011
Yeah, I'm sorry Paul, this analysis is somewhere between incomplete and flawed.
Kids don't buy digital music, they steal it.
Furthermore, you didn't say (or maybe NPD didn't specify, though they should have) whether the "digital" number includes things other than paid downloads - like subscriptions to Spotify or Rhapsody. And let's not forget free access to Pandora, Spotify, etc.
These conclusions don't follow from the data.
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