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MP3 Players Aren't Just For Kids; In Fact They're Barely For Kids

Surprises

from the rethinking-the-general-consensus dept

Fri, Dec 17th 2004 2:04am — Mike Masnick
The common bit of wisdom is that MP3s are a young person's technology. It's the teens and the folks just coming out of college that are the MP3 generation, after all, so they'd be the most likely to own an MP3 player, right? Not at all, apparently. A new study says that 90% of MP3 player owners over 34 years old. While this may have something to do with the high price of many of the best MP3 players, the numbers still don't seem right. It would be interesting to see the methodology behind this study. That's not to say that those over 34 aren't likely to own an MP3 player, but it's hard to believe that 90% of MP3 players go to those 35 and older.
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9 Comments

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  • identicon
    dorpus, 17 Dec 2004 @ 2:48am

    Maybe

    Maybe the future will see old people passing around MP3's to deliver long religious or political speeches -- probably not the "liberating" applications that young people have in mind today. ;)

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RJD, 17 Dec 2004 @ 6:54am

    ---

    Okay, I'm one of the 35 or older crowd who owns that high cost MP3 player. And it kinda makes sense. I don't really find much on the radio these days I care to listen to so having 10000+ songs with me I know I enjoy makes sense if I'm going to include music in my day. When I was younger, finding music on the radio wasn't terribly hard so why would I have wanted to invest in a high end MP3 player when a low end with FM radio capability would probably be the smarter buy.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Cigar Jack, 17 Dec 2004 @ 7:18am

    A few reasons I think this is true.

    How many of these were bought as gifts for teens/college kids by parents? As stated above the newer music isn't as appealing to people over 35. Heck I'm 27 and I hardly listen to it. Instead of getting an MP3 player I purchased a XM Radio. Also you can purchase Audio books in mp3 format and also the 35 and over crowd is more heal concious and more apt to work out so that probably also drives the purchase of an MP3 player.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alan, 17 Dec 2004 @ 7:39am

    I don't believe it

    "Of the respondents in the survey indicating they own an MP3 player"
    What is the age distribution of those surveyed? That is a very important piece of information that is missing, without that number, the 90% means nothing.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Michael De Muth, 17 Dec 2004 @ 8:45am

      Re: I don't believe it

      Too true, but that is not the way you get the high impact headlines. This could also have been labeled 'those over 35 more likely to participate in surveys'. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2004 @ 9:58am

        Re: I don't believe it

        um, no. They need to validate their survey by putting that bit of information in. He's right. You don't make a headline out of it, you put it in your research, just like everything else.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2004 @ 1:56pm

      Re: I don't believe it

      Yeah, I don't believe it either. From my personal straw poll (people I've seen with mp3 players in public) I'd say the 90-10 split goes the other way. Also, the high price argument doesn't wash because, although the iPod gets all the press, I've only ever seen one, whereas I've seen dozens of USB thumbdrives.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2004 @ 1:27am

        Re: I don't believe it

        Round the University where I work every third student has an MP3 player but only a tiny number of members of staff. Rubbish survey.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 May 2007 @ 1:46pm

    freaky 'survey'. It sounds more like a survey intended specifically for news purposes only.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


RFID Standard Sort Of Sidesteps Patents; Intermec Begs To Differ
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