It seems there might be a gap in the market for a music download site for the so called 'grey market' - because recent research shows that the over-45s are increasingly using the illegal peer-to-peer networks. Most legit music download sites have primarily targeted the youth and pop markets, but new research undertaken by Universal owned MP3.com suggests up to a quarter of music downloading is done by over 45s.
MP3.com's Leanne Sharman told reporters: "These are staggering statistics and contradict the traditional thinking that teenagers are the largest consumers of music on the internet. This is good news for record labels and consumer brands because it shows consumers are retaining youthful interests as they grow older - effectively extending core marketing demographics."
Meanwhile some good news for the record labels over downloading - research company Forrester reckons online downloads will be worth £900m by 2007. The bad news - long delays in getting decent legit download services online means this year's download income is unlikely to be more than £17 million (and by current reckoning, a big proportion of that will probably come via Apple's new I-tunes service).
Forrester analyst Rebecca Jennings told reporters: "Recent announcements by EMI and Apple show that after a slow start, major music and technology companies are now taking the future of digital music seriously. While the US market for legitimate music downloads is already off the starting blocks, the European market lagged. But over the next few years digital music delivery will ramp up."