Holiday Gifting Music’s Gifting Digital Double Whammy

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