Music downloaders more likely to respond to online ads, says BMRB

Consumers who download music from the internet are more than twice as likely as those who do not download music to respond positively to online advertising. This suggests that brands that associate themselves with music download services should see a significant return on their investment.

According to BMRB’s latest quarterly Internet Monitor survey, almost 7 million adults – nearly one in three of all those who use the internet — have downloaded music in the past six months, whether free or paid-for. One in three of them (34 per cent) admits to being influenced to buy a product online by ads on the Web, compared with 15 per cent of those who have not downloaded music. The downloaders are also more likely to agree that online ads influence the brands they buy – 25 per cent against 11 per cent.

While younger internet users are more likely to download music (62 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds do so), it is far from being reserved for the young – 23 per cent of music downloaders are aged 35 and over.

BMRB also found that six out of ten surfers now use some form of control to block pop-up ads, an increase of nine percentage points from the last quarter.

And, following last quarter’s record leap in broadband connectivity, there has been another substantial increase in the percentage of home users with broadband. This now runs at 49 per cent of home users, up from 44 per cent in May. There are now almost 10 million home broadband users, while 42 per cent of non-broadband users say they are likely to get broadband at home in the next 12 months.