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Online Listeners Grow Up

It's way past time, too. When it comes to online music, we all need to grow up a little.

Currently, about 1 in 7 adults, representing 15 million households, say they listen to music from the web, rather than on the radio, according to research firm TechnoMetrica. Among young adults ages 18 to 24, that number jumps to nearly 1 in 3, or about 9 million people.

Another study, this one by NPD, showed that around 4 percent of Internet-enabled U.S. households used an online music store in March. The average age was 33, and average household income was $83,000, NPD said.

The study showed that illegal music downloads decreased steadily after people left college, a time when they have less free time and more money to spend.

It seems the older the listener, the more discretionary income, which means he can afford to be pickier about what he wants. It seems these folks don't mind spending money for online music, as long as they can customize it (something you can't get on the radio), and the quality is decent.

The customization fad is fueling new types of music-recommendation services, like those from Savage Beast and Siren Systems, which point consumers to new music based on what they already like. (But I think there are still some kinks to be worked out -- Madonna and Joe Cocker recommended together? I dunno.)

To make sure these positive trends continue, the music industry has begun an international education campaign for parents, via a free pamphlet distributed in libraries, record stores, and other places. The goal is for parents to become more savvy about what their kids are doing online. That's all good, as the kids say, but I wonder if this campaign will come back to bite the industry as more parents learn how to download music illegally thanks to the pamphlet.

But let's face it, sometimes you do get what you pay for, and a lot of the time the quality of the free music is pretty awful, from what I hear. Either the "sharer" used the lowest possible recording setting, or the song simply cuts out half-way through. Just as you're grooving to the blissful sound of Ella Fitzgerald, say, the music suddenly quits.

Who needs it.

Also, it doesn't take long for the "thrill" of illicit gains to cool. Remember when you first started surfing the 'net and could go ANYWHERE? And you spent hours just following your muse, going hither and yon, clicking on any link that caught your eye?

Just as that pheonomenon gets old, so too does the illicit online music scene, at least for most folks. It can actually be a relief to pay for a legal music service, even with their slight flaws. (Most of the time multiple users can't be on at the same time, and different services like Napster and Google have various policies about how much of a song you may listen to before you buy it. Speaking just for me, 30 seconds doesn't cut it. But I digress.)

Taken together, these new online-music trends are all positive. It means that musicians (and folks who work behind-the-scenes to distribute and produce the music) are being paid for their work. Everyone benefits, because the professionals can afford to create new music and artists who are new to the scene can at least--and at last--be heard.

All that said, though, I doubt the free sharing services are going away anytime soon. There's a raft of new college kids every year, for one thing. Then again, I hear that vinyl's making a comeback. Excuse me as I go listen to my "Woodstock" album on the stereo.

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