Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online, today released the Akamai Net Usage Index for Digital Music (http://www.akamai.com/netusageindex). The index tracks and benchmarks global Web usage patterns of visitors to more than 40 digital music websites, including music download sites, music destination sites, and live radio broadcast services, such as XM Satellite Radio, Clear Channel, Premiere Radio, MTV, Rediff.com and Napster, among others.
Data collected from the Index over the past three months shows key geographic patterns and insight into Web traffic trends associated with downloaded and streamed digital music:
• North America, Asia, and Europe represent the bulk of visitor traffic to these sites
• Daily peak traffic worldwide is more than half a million visitors per minute
• Traffic peaks in North America and Europe tend to occur mid-week, while peaks in Asia and Australia come toward the end of the week
• Sunday is consistently the slowest day for visitors to these sites
The Akamai Net Usage Index for Digital Music provides a global aggregate view of total visitors per minute, as well as a detailed view by continent, from a collection of digital music sites delivered by Akamai. All of the sites included in the index provide digital music streaming or downloads as their core business. Akamai’s Net Usage Index offers businesses real-time information about the usage habits of visitors to their sites, and an industry benchmark to measure against. Anyone interested in data from the Index can view an aggregate, real-time view of Web traffic patterns online.
Separately, Akamai conducted a survey of online consumers to better understand their digital music habits. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 68 with a survey base of 200 people, 58% female and 41% male*. Individuals were questioned on how often they download music, how much they spend on music downloads, where and when they stream music online, where they listen to music downloads, and how many sources of online music they use.
Survey data reveal:
• 86% of respondents own a portable music device
• 76% of respondents spend $1-$5 on music downloads a week; 14% spend $5-$10; 9% spend $10-$20 a week. 90% of these respondents buy at least one song per week
• 82% of respondents prefer a pay-per-download model; 9% prefer ad-sponsored; and 9% chose subscription as their model of choice
• 55% of respondents listen to streaming music online, and 65% of those listen during the work day
• 42% of respondents are loyal to only one digital music source; 29% use two; and one respondent used 43 different sources for online music
“Not only has the Internet quickly evolved into a key distribution channel for music, it’s dramatically changing the way consumers learn about, share, and buy music online,” said Brad Rinklin, vice president of Marketing at Akamai, in the press release. “The Internet offers a platform to dramatically expand the global footprint artists and labels have to promote, distribute, and sell music, videos, and other rich media assets to millions of potential listeners and buyers. The Net Usage Index for Digital Music data will help the industry by providing empirical data on consumer behavior and online music.”
The online music market is expected to increase sevenfold by 2010, with revenues from music downloads and subscription services expected to top CD sales on the Web by next year, according to In-Stat Research. Given these projections, online music services need a robust, distributed infrastructure to handle growing user demand. Akamai is uniquely positioned to meet digital music distribution demands through its network of more than 20,000 servers worldwide that optimize access to popular content and ensure reliability and performance.
Akamai is a leader in business-critical solutions for media and entertainment companies, and works closely with customers to enable profitable new business models offering a flexible feature rich platform for managing, protecting, delivering and understanding digital assets online. Akamai provides a competitive advantage and increases the impact of media downloads and streams by ensuring sites perform flawlessly, even during unforeseen high-traffic events.
The Akamai Net Usage Index for Digital Music complements indices already available for News and Retail use online. Each index tracks online consumption for websites across a representative set of Akamai customers. All of the indices are intended to provide unique insight into the massive cultural and economic changes resulting from the ways people worldwide get news and information and act as consumers online. The Akamai Net Usage Indices measure Internet traffic dedicated to an aggregate set of Web sites, monitoring consumption by continent, as well as the world as a whole. Akamai’s Indices do not release specific customer data, but show an aggregate view of web traffic to the sites that Akamai supports. As with the other Indices, there is a downloadable widget available here: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/nui/music/widgets.html
Does Apple still own a piece of Akamai?
No, I believe they sold off all their shares back around 2003 or 2004.
This survey kinda contradicts the earlier reports that music downloads are dying just because the number of downloads per iPod seems to stay constant around 20. Of course, those reports don’t take into account that the bulk of the iPod sales were in the last 15 months.
Can someone summarize that mess for those of us that are only somewhat interested?
i think the bulk of people live in north america, europe and asia.
But most of the bulky people live in North America and the U.K. And Samoa.
As usual, profound insight from MDN posters.
But most of the bulky people live in North America and the U.K. And Samoa.
Many of them in Milton Keynes shopping mall on a Saturday.
It says that only Australia is on the net in the entire Southern Hemisphere.
And it also says that despite the march of Islam, Sunday is still Sunday.
Isn’t it interesting to see just how well Apple got it right with their pay-per-download business model (82% prefer it), while most of the plays-for-sure group choose the rental method (9% prefer that). I guess those guys didn’t bother to do any market surveys before they rolled out their music service.
You know, getting paid for not thinking used to be the province of Hollywood actors alone. Now Napster, Real, and MTV show that you too can get paid big bucks for not thinking. Heck, you get paid more for big screwups. I wish I had a job like that!
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There is not much hard data in this article posting. However, if I am reading it correctly, it seems “crazy” that their sample size was a mere 200 people. To wit: Separately, Akamai conducted a survey of online consumers to better understand their digital music habits. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 68 with a survey base of 200 people, 58% female and 41% male.
“Akamai” is a Hawaiian word meaning, “smart” or “intelligent”; but I do not think it smart to give the measurements posted in this article much weight, since 200 people is just too small IMO. If they are getting 500,000 hits every minute (peak) from all around the globe, there must be a huge variation in habits that could not be accurately measured with only a 200 person sample.
/my2c