Major task_users

My research of trasforming an internet service in a
physical one is definitly focused on the music.
I started my research from the possible users of a
kind of product like this, analyzing reports
from studies about on-line-music-store users.
I found a lot of interesting (and funny!) material that
will be very usefull for me to design the machine.
Here we have a report from Clickable Culture (on www.secretlair.com):

_iTunes Web site and use of iTunes up 241% in 2005
over2004, reaching nearly 14% of the "active
Internetpopulation" or 20.7 M unique visitors.

_ 12 - 17 year-olds are nearly twice as likely to interact
with iTunes than average internet users.

_iTunes users are 54% male and 46% female

_iTunes users favour Volkswagen cars, which they are
2.2 times more likely to own than the average Internet user.

_iTunes users favour hard cider as their drink of choice.

_Tunes users are 3.3 times more likely than average
to read Wired magazine

_iTunes users watch the Cartoon Network at 1.4 times the average rate

Some other comments about the subject from npd.com (for full text go to the site from the link below):

" iTunes is proving to be a formidable competitor against free peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services...
Apple iTunes’s industry-leading a-la-carte download store tied with LimeWire as the second-most-popular digital music service in March, 2005. Both iTunes and LimeWire were used by 1.7 million households.
The most popular digital music service that month was WinMX, which was used by 2.1 million households to download music.
Paid a-la-carte music offerings from Napster and Real Networks also placed in the top ten, alongside other P2P services like iMesh and Kazaa.
In total, four percent of Internet-enabled households in the United States used a paid music download store in March,2005.
A large number of these consumers were over 30 years of age (reporting an average age of 33 years and an average household income of $83,000). Though younger demographics are more likely than others to share files on P2P services, NPD’s research shows that older consumers are more likely to be deterred by the recording industry’s anti-piracy litigation efforts. The growing legal download services provide a perfect alternative for the post-college demographic.
“They have diminishing free time, and more disposable income,” said Crupnick. NPD’s research shows that the litigation raised awareness of legal issues surrounding P2P music downloading, which provided the final tipping point for many of these older, more financially secure customer segments.
Those that had tried digital music through file sharing were slowing down or stopping that illegal behavior, and many post-college consumers
are leading the charge into legal a la carte downloading.”


The following list shows the top ten digital music services, based on the number of households acquiring a digital
song in March 2005:
1. WinMX (2.1 million)
2. iTunes (1.7 million)
3. LimeWire (1.7 million)
4. Kazaa
5. BearShare
6. Ares Galaxy
7. Napster
8. Morpheus
9. Real Player Store
10. iMesh

Source:

http://www.npd.com/dynamic/releases/press_050607.html

http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/C183/P20/

Paolo Dell'Elce