Indians lead craze for music videos in Asia

Indians are the most passionate, television-driven music consumers in Asia, according to the Branded, MTV and Synovate Music Matters survey - on music habits and attitudes of young urban Asians- released at the 2007 Music Matters Asia Pacific Forum in Hong Kong.

Of the Indian urban consumer respondents, the survey reveals, 67 per cent watch music videos on television almost every day, and 22 per cent watch them two to three times a week, the highest rates in Asia. Regionally, 33 per cent of consumers watch music videos almost every day and 25 per cent watch them two to three times a week.

"India is a dynamic, exciting market, distinct from the rest of Asia in terms of consumer love for music with 71 per cent of Indians rating themselves as fairly to very passionate about music, the highest rate regionally, far higher than China (42 per cent), Korea (45 per cent) and Singapore (38 per cent)," said Craig Harvey, director, media research Asia Pacific, Synovate.

The survey questioned 3,857 urban respondents between the 15 to 34 age group, across ten Asian markets- China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The survey was conducted in March this year via telephone and face-to-face interviews on AsiaBUS, Synovate's monthly omnibus survey.

Harvey said the survey provides music executives and marketers with comprehensive insights into the unique music market in India, as well as Asia as a whole.

"Although the relatively low Internet penetration rate in India means consumers there use digital music far less than in other parts of Asia, marketers should take note of the fast-growing segment embracing music on mobile phones, with one third of respondents having downloaded and saved a song to their mobile phone in the past month, and 56 per cent ready to replace their digital music devices with music-playing mobile phones," Harvey said.

Television was named device used most often to listen to music by 44 per cent of the Indian urban youth while regionally radio was chosen by 20 per cent as the device most often used to listen to music, with 19 per cent choosing television. Local pop is the most prefered music with 85 per cent nominated for it, followed by classical music (42 per cent) and western music (40 per cent). And 56 per cent are ready to replace their digital music player with a music-playing mobile phone.

In the previous month 40 per cent played music on a computer, 49 per cent played music on an MP3 player, 33 per cent downloaded and saved a song to their phone, 36 per cent  purchased music in a physical store, and 13 per cent purchased a counterfeit music CD - below the regional average of 19 per cent.