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Business News Retail
The BPI says people would like music for Christmas, should you still be struggling for gift ideas
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 17 December 2013
Record label trade body the BPI hit the streets recently to ask 2000 people if they’d still like to receive music as a gift, and 67% of them said yes, with Christmas being the most popular time of year for such a thing to happen. So, that’s nice. The other 33% just wanted to sit in silence and would quite like it if you’d go and play all those records somewhere else, thank you very much.
Interestingly, over 25% of people asked said that they’d be happy to receive digital music as a present – either as download vouchers, iTunes credit or a streaming subscription – which is up considerably from last time anyone thought to do this research a couple of years ago. Amongst 15-19 year olds and 20-24 year olds, more than half said it would be fine not to get a physical disc as part of their musical gift.
Overall, though, the majority did still want something they could hold and shove into or onto some sort of playing contraption – 57% wanting one of those CD things you used to see, and 7% wanting a piece of altogether cooler vinyl. 59% said they’d also be happy with some kind of record voucher, either for online or high street stores.
Respondents were also asked when they’d like to receive music as a gift, with Christmas coming out the most popular at 48%. For birthdays people were less keen, at 37%. Mothers were slightly more likely than fathers to want music on their respective days (only 10% and 8% though, so maybe you shouldn’t all rush out to buy those crappy compilations that get brought out each year), while Valentine’s Day, anniversaries and non-specific “religious festivals” came last in the poll.
Commenting, BPI spokesman Gennaro Castaldo told CMU: “Music clearly remains one the gift that’s we most value receiving, especially at Christmas. However, while CDs still remain popular gift items, it’s interesting that more of us are now happy to receive our gifts in digital form either as download vouchers or as subscriptions to streaming services. There was a time not so long ago when we wanted our music gifts in physical form that we could unwrap, but that seems to be gradually changing, especially among teenagers and people in their early 20s”.
