Going against popular theory, a Nielsen/NetRating report claims 75% of UK Internet users call the CD their favored format. Only 8% prefer digital downloads.

"Despite the fact that Internet users are more likely to have purchased music online than from the high street they are actually spending almost twice as much on music in the high street than they are on the web. Again, this indicates that the high street doom-mongerers are perhaps slightly premature - brick-spend still outperforms click-spend for the music surfer."

How can one interpret these findings? Do people not value the convenience of digital downloads? Do they not find value in the ability to cherry pick songs? Here's a thought: most people still prefer the album format over the single download, and CD prices have come down far enough to make a digital album far less valued than the CD. Yeah, sounds old fashioned, but it wasn't fortysomethings who sent Fall Out Boy's last album over the double-platinum mark.

[music jobs] HR Manager at EMI NA; New York, NY.