Twitter users more engaged with music

According to a recent report by The NPD Group, awareness of Twitter more than doubled in Q1, reaching a 52% awareness level among the U.S. Internet-using population, which increased from 22% awareness in Q4 of 2008. Among music buyers, awareness of Twitter reached 67% in Q1. In addition 12% of music buyers claimed to have used Twitter in the past three months, versus 8% of Web users overall.

"NPD's latest music-acquisition study shows that there are segments of consumers who are more actively integrating Twitter as a key tool for communicating and networking," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. "Based on their music-purchasing history, active Twitter users are simply worth more to record labels and music retailers than those who are not using Twitter."

According to NPD's consumer tracking, 33% of Twitter users reported buying a CD in the prior three months, and 34% claimed to have purchased a digital download, which compares positively to overall Web users (at 23% and 16%, respectively). When Twitter users purchased music, they also spent more money than did their non-Twitter counterparts. In fact people on Twitter purchased 77% more digital downloads, on average, than those who were not using Twitter.

Twitter users are also much more likely than average Web users to be engaged in online music activities -- one-third listened to music on a social networking site, 41% listened to online radio (compared to 22% among all Web users), and 39% watched a music video online (versus 25% among all Web users). Twitter users were also twice as likely than average Web users to visit MySpace Music and Pandora.