Buying Music Stimulates Our Brains

It turns out that there's a little more to buying music that was previously thought. A new study at McGill University has found that buying (or liking/sharing) a song is almost as good as hearing it for the first time, as far as the brain is concerned.

It turns out that the reward center of the brain is stimulated when we purchase music, and the amount of activity there even corresponds to how much we paid for it. In fact, researchers can even predict the likelihood of purchasing by the amount of activity in that part of the brain.

The interesting thing is that this also closely corresponds to other basic needs and rewards in this brain center, like eating and sex.

If we were to look at this another way though, the study confirms a theory that music is something that we need. Some might argue that life would go on perfectly well without it, and perhaps that's true on some level, but the fact of the matter is that our lives are much more pleasurable when we have music available.

That's also one of the reasons that people will continue to purchase music, even as streaming becomes more and more ubiquitous. We'll buy music because it makes us feel good to support an artist we enjoy, or to have a collectable that reminds us of a time or place. We may buy less of it, but we will buy it. Because it feels good.

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Neilsen Says Music Discovery Still Led By Radio

In a new report by Nielsen called Music 360, most people still discover their music most frequently from radio, but teens listen to music through YouTube more than any other source. Among the other findings is that 36% of teens have bought a CD in the last year, and 51% of teens have purchased a music download.

Here's a sampling of what's found in the report:

Radio is still the dominant way people discover music

• 48% discover music most often through the radio
• 10% discover music most often through friends/relatives
• 7% discover music most often through YouTube

More teens listen to music through YouTube than through any other source

• 64% of teens listen to music through YouTube
• 56% of teens listen to music on the radio
• 53% of teens listen to music through iTunes
• 50% of teens listen to music on CD

Positive recommendations from a friend are most likely to influence purchase decisions

• 54% are more likely to make a purchase based off a positive recommendation from a friend
• 25% are more likely to make a purchase based off a music blog/chat rooms
• 12% are more likely to make a purchase based off an endorsement from a brand
• 8% of all respondents share music on social networking sites, while 6% upload music.

Music player apps are most prevalent, followed by radio and music store apps

• 54% have music player apps on their smartphones
• 47% have radio apps on their smartphones
• 26% have music store apps on their smartphones

Males purchase rock music most often, while females prefer top 40

• 38% of males purchase rock most often
• 15% of females (compared to 9% of males) purchase top 40 most often

Digital music is seen as a slightly better value than a physical CD

• 63% of purchasers identified digital albums as a very or fairly good value
• 61% identified digital tracks as a very or fairly good value
• 55% identified physical CDs as a very or fairly good value

Younger consumers who do buy digital tracks, are more likely to purchase new music immediately after its release

• 33% of teens purchased a digital track within one week of release
• 21% of persons 18+ purchased a digital track within one week of release

18-24 year olds are most likely to attend a music event (among those who attend any type of live event)

• 7% attending once a week or more
• 30% attending once a month

Although 18-24 year olds attend more live events, teens are more likely to purchase T-shirts and posters while there.

• 54% (compared to 46% of 18-24 year olds) of teen attendees purchase concert tees
• 14% (compared to 7% of 18-24 year olds) of teen attendees purchase concert posters

Even though Nielsen has done great research for years, there are some things that I have to question in Music 360. For instance, it's hard to believe that most people still discover music through the radio and not from YouTube, which is the predominant way that most people under 30 listen to music. Other things, like the type of music purchased and when, haven't seemed to change for years.

What the report does illustrate is that we often don't really know what we think we know. If you listen to the media, the music world has turned completely upside down. After looking at this report, it's not as different as we're led to believe.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Who Buys The Most Music? Top 40 Listeners

There's a new study conducted by The Media Audit that reveals what most of us already thought to be true; Top 40 radio listeners purchase the most music. The study looked at the habits of 41 million users across 81 markets and found the following:

• 42.8% of Top 40 listeners frequently purchase CDs or downloads
• 27.7% of all US consumers frequently purchase music (who would've thought it would be that high?)
• 39.2% - Urban listeners
• 38.3% - Hot AC (adult contemporary)
• 36.4% - Rock
• 34.1% - Urban AC
• 33.2% - Sports
• 32.7% - Public Radio
• 31.5% - Classic Rock
• 30.4% - AC

Frequent purchases are defined as having purchased a CD or download within the last four weeks.

To break it down even further:

• 49% are female
• 46.6% are between the ages of 25 to 44
• 67% are between the ages of 18 to 44

And finally, in a figure that should be no surprise at all, frequent music buyers are more likely to have a college degree and have a higher income, with the average household income being $76,739.

The bottom line, there's still a lot of music being purchased, it's just not making its way back to the artists and songwriters.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.