Holiday Gifting Music’s Gifting Digital Double Whammy

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The 20,000 Foot View

The music industry has long placed supreme importance on the holiday season and it is a habit that dies hard.  Release schedules are still geared towards the period and seasonal sales expectations, or least hopes, remain high.  Yet gifting has been one of the biggest victims of the digital transition with digital gifting failing to capture the imagination of mainstream consumers. If a natural digital path cannot be plotted for music gifters the holiday season will ultimately lose most of its impact. 

Key Findings

• Holiday gifting is facing a double whammy of a continued dependence on the CD and of weak interest in digital gifting
• Music gifting is becoming the last bastion of the CD:        consumers will gift a CD this holiday season, more than any other music product 
• The strongest digital performer is digital gift cards with       
       of consumers would rather gift a book or some other physical gift rather than digital music 
• A fifth of consumers do not think digital music makes a good holiday gift
       of consumers gifted music last holiday season but will not do this year        of digital gifters are male compared to        for physical music gifters
• Physical music gifters are aging: just        are aged under        compared to        of digital gifters
• The digital gifting sector will grow but it will never rival the physical gifting market at its peak