The majority of UK consumers are still very attached to physical media formats

"The survey undertaken by HP illustrates that when it comes to the progression from physical to digital ownership of media, the UK population are far from being ‘Space Age’. The survey included 1,000 British consumers between the ages of 16 – 100 demonstrated that music fans are still strongly attached to physical media formats such as CDs and DVDs. Apparently little attachment is given to the monetary or emotional value of their digital content.
Some interesting statistics from the survey include: While 86% of the population access some form of digital media, 68% still prefer photographs to be physical rather than digital, 64% for music, 75% for films and a massive 95% for books. While the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups are the most enthusiastic when it comes to digital media, many of them (39%) are still purchasing CDs and DVDs alongside digital formats.
Most importantly, 73% of the people surveyed stated “they can never see a time when they would move to a 100% subscription model for their music and films”. So what does this signify for the likes of Spotify and we7.com in the UK? We should be clear that the survey was only of the UK population. Yet, as it was a company such as HP, which has no vested interest in music or films, one has to be confident its survey is probably one of the most unbiased in terms of questions and weightings given to answers."
Source: Evolution of Digital Media survey for HP, conducted by Opinion Matters, reported in The Music Void, 18th May 2010
For a full copy of the survey please contact: psguk@edelman.com