Half Of Mac Users Pay To Download Music

In the third quarter of 2007 half of all Mac users had paid to download music tracks from sites like iTunes, but just 16 percent of PC owners had done so, according to NPD's quarterly Digital Music Monitor.

Unit-volume sales share for Apple computers increased from almost 6 percent in 2006 to close to 9 percent this year (January through October), according to NPD's consumer data panel. "Apple's growing share in the personal computing environment -- and continued success with iPod sales -- is a potential harbinger for the continued growth of digital music," Crupnick said.

Overall 32 percent of

"The more consumers become comfortable paying for digital music, the more chance they will evangelize to others. And at this point in the game, it's the growing base of Apple consumers that are the industry's low-hanging fruit when it comes to converting from physical to digital music."