A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project tracks the decision-making processes for buying music, purchasing a cell phone, and buying or renting a home.

While I was pleased with the numbers around online for discovery, I still found them low.  There is strong correlation between discovery online and purchases offline "Even for a digital product such as music, people more often than not buy in stores, not online."

Comfort zones, behavior and interoperability issues still get in the way of online music consumption and the general music consumer.


The top three sources used in product research for each of the three products

For those who have bought music in the prior year:

• 83% say they find out about music from the radio, the television, or in a movie.
• 64% say they find out about music from friends, family members, or co-workers.
• 56% say they find out about music through various online tools, such as going to a band's or artist's website or streaming samples of songs to their computers.
  

# For music buyers who used the internet to find out about music:
 
  68% said it helped them learn more about bands or artists they were interested in.
  42% said online information helped them save money in buying music.
  37% said it led them to buy more music than they otherwise would have.


Nonetheless, just 22% of all music buyers say their most recent purchase was online (either a digital download or ordering a compact disc), while 74% said their most recent purchase was at a store. Among smaller set of music buyers using the internet to find out about music, one-third (33%) said their most recent purchase was online.