Women 'drive online music market'

Music download sales are booming

Technology-savvy women are driving the increase in digital music sales, according to a report.

More than three quarters of women aged 16-45 in the UK now own an MP3 player or mobile phone that plays MP3s, research by media group Emap found.

The report said women spend longer listening to music than men, discover more music and listen to more podcasts.

Sophie Watson Smyth of music magazine Q said the internet gave women the freedom to widen their musical tastes.

The digital music market is booming, with download sales up more than 150% in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2005.

Women are now confidently downloading music at home and broadening their musical horizons in private Sophie Watson Smyth Marketing manager, Q and Mojo

Some 80% of women spend now more time listening to music than they did before they got their MP3 player - compared with 75% of men, according to Emap.

Eight out of 10 also say they have rediscovered lots of old artists and albums, compared with 72% of men.

And 72% of women say they spend more time on the internet looking for new music, 7% higher than the figure for men.

Emap said the popularity of downloading music was behind a boom in the number of women reading music magazines.

Freedom

For the first time, more women are reading are reading metal magazine Kerrang than men, while almost half of Q's under-30 readership is now female.

Ms Watson Smyth said: "The freedom afforded by new technology means that women are now confidently downloading music at home and broadening their musical horizons in private.

"Technology has changed how women approach music and we are seeing increasing numbers turning to music magazines for expert guidance and edited choice in the cluttered world."

Emap's report was based on a survey of 1,800 adults between August and September last year.