NPD reported that while teens and tweens were largely responsible for driving free peer-to-peer services, older users flooding the market prefer legal online services because of generational differences and the threat of lawsuits from the music industry. The average consumer buying music online was 33 years old.
The music industry has vigorously supported legal alternatives to peer-to-peers, including Apple's iTunes, RealNetworks's Rhapsody, and Napster, while filing lawsuit after lawsuit against individuals and services that illicitly share music files.
Some 4 percent of Internet-enabled U.S. households used a legal online music store in March, the NPD's study found.