56% of those who bought music most recently said they could have made the purchase online

For the most part, those who said their most recent music purchase was in a store were doing this by choice. Some 56% of those who bought music most recently said they could have made the purchase online, while 37% said they could not have. Among the 22% of music purchasers who bought most recently online, 61% could have bought their music in a store, with 35% saying they could not have done that. Just 7% of online music purchasers said they visited a store to sample music or ask for some help before getting their music online, according to the Pew Internet Project. As to the nature of the music purchase – CD or digital download – some 41% of online buyers of music ordered a compact disc and 58% downloaded digital files. Put differently, 13% of music buyers say their most recent music purchase was a digital download of music files. When asked whether information found online had a major impact, minor impact, or no impact at all, here is what music buyers who used the internet in their research said 51% said online information had no impact at all; 37% said it had a minor impact; 12% said it had a major impact.