• by May 2, 2001

A recent release from Pew Internet shows that, whether you're using banners, pop-ups, streaming, rich or what-have-you, there's an incredible spurt of adults and teenagers on the music download sites to whom you can appeal! Surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that between July-August 2000 and February 2001, the number of American adults who have downloaded music online shot up more than 40%.

In the six months between August 2000 and February 2001 close to 30 million American adults have downloaded music files over the Internet and it has been one of the fastest growing Internet activities in the past half-year, especially among men. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project, says "The legal struggles involving Napster have hardly dampened the public's appetite for this new way of getting music."

The number of adult American Internet users downloading music on any given day doubled to more than 6 million. That is twice the number of Internet users buying retail products online on any given day, and equal to the number seeking health information on the Web or looking for travel information!

Here's the breakout of users and growth:

Percent of Internet Users Who Download Music

  +------------------------+--------+------+   |                        |
July-  | Feb. |   |                        | August | 2001 |   |                        | 2000   |      |   +------------------------+--------+------+   | All adults             | 22%    | 29%  |   |
Men                    | 24     | 36   |   | Women                  | 20     | 36   |   | Blacks                 | 29     | 30   |   | Hispanics              | 35     | 46   |   |
|        |      |   | Age groups             |        |      |   | 18-29                  | 37%    | 51%  |   | 30-49                  | 19     | 23   |   | 50+                    | 9      | 15   |
|                        |        |      |   | HH Income              |        |      |   | Under $30,000          | 28%    | 36%  |   | 30-50                  | 24     | 31   |   | 50-75
| 20     | 29   |   | $75,000+               | 15     | 24   |   |                        |        |      |   | Educational attainment |        |      |   | Less than high school  | 38%    | 55%  |
| High school grad       | 25     | 31   |   | Some college           | 25     | 32   |   | College degree or more | 15     | 21   |   |                        |        |      |   | Internet user
|        |      |   | experience             |        |      |   | Less than 6 months     | 20%    | 27%  |   | 6 months to 1 year     | 20     | 25   |   | 2 to 3 years           | 24     | 28   |
| 3 or more years        | 22     | 33   |   +------------------------+--------+------+   

source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Surveys

The full report as a PDF file.