Owners of Digital Music Players Have High Affinity For Online Shopping

The comScore research also shows that 36% of online DMP owners have an annual household income above $75,000 and they are 66% more likely than the average internet user to have an annual household income above $150,000.

Online DMP owners also show a high affinity for online shopping, with 49% agreeing that the internet is the easiest way to shop, and 94% reporting that they shopped online in the past six months.

Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, said: “With the launch of Zune, Microsoft is targeting a highly desirable audience segment.

“As Zune gains in popularity, it will be interesting to observe how this segment of DMP owners differs from those who own iPods and other DMPs already in the marketplace.”

According to the research, DMP owners are twice as likely as non-DMP owners to have web-enabled video game consoles, 80% more likely to own a satellite radio system and 57% more likely to own a plasma/flat screen TV.

ComScore adds that unsurprisingly, technology-adept online DMP owners are also highly internet savvy individuals. These consumers tend to be medium-to-heavy internet users, with 83% going online seven days a week.

They are 58% more likely than the average internet user to be the first among their peers to buy new gadgets, and are 13% more likely to have purchased goods and services online in the past six months.

ComScore’s Plan Metrix analysis also revealed that online DMP owners are more prone to simultaneous media usage than the average internet user, and are especially likely to surf the internet while watching TV.

This group is 50% more likely than the average internet user to visit a related chat room while watching a TV show, and 49% more likely to visit a related web site during a program.

Importantly, DMP owners are 40% more likely than the average internet user to research or browse products featured in a TV show or ad shown within the program, and are 17% more likely than the norm to purchase a product featured in a TV show or ad.

In addition, comScore says that whilst online DMP owners use the internet while watching TV, they tend to be light TV viewers overall, with 45% watching TV less than 19 hours a week. In comparison, only 38% of internet users watch less than 19 hours of TV programming per week.

Not surprisingly, comScore says that these avid music fans are not heavy radio listeners, spending less than 14 hours per week listening to the radio.

However, when it comes to readership of publications, DMP owners fit the norm in newspaper readership, but show a partiality for magazines. They are 79% more likely than the average internet user to subscribe to 10 or more magazines, with 56% subscribing to at least two magazines and one-quarter subscribing to more than four magazines.

ComScore says that advertisers seeking to target DMP owners through offline vehicles should consider a variety of magazine formats, from entertainment to news.

In-Stat released research in August which predicted that US portable media player sales will reach 5 million units by the end of 2006, up from just 390,000 only two years ago (see Portable Media Player Market To Grow).

Meanwhile, Continental Research recently released a report which said that the iPod’s grip on the portable music device market could be challenged by consumers using the MP3 facility on their mobile handsets (see Mobile Phone MP3 Players Could Challenge iPod).