Consumer music acquisition was up 6% in 2007, but average annual per-capita music spending fell by 10%, according to an NPD Group study.
Music spending slipped to $40 from $44 per capita among Internet users. The overall portion of music acquired through pay channels fell to 42% in 2007 from 48% in 2006, but the number of digital consumers rose to 29 million. Apple's iTunes Music Store is the big beneficiary: The digital store became the second-largest music retailer in the U.S. after Wal-Mart.
NPD estimates that 1 million consumers dropped out of the CD buyer market last year; 48% of U.S. teens did not purchase a single CD in 2007, compared to 38% in 2006.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is at 19% of all music consumers.
The NPD Digital Music Study surveyed 5,000 consumers, weighted to reflect the U.S. Internet population (age 13 and older).NPD Music Watch tracks past seven-day music purchase habits of the US population age 13 and older. 

A team of British doctors decided to figure out if rock stars do indeed die before they get old. Their findings? Sort of.
  A team of public health doctors from Liverpool John Moores University assembled a list of 1,064 famous musicians, then determined how many had died, and at what age. They then compared their mortality with a sample of regular citizens from the U.S. and Europe.
Of the 1,064 musicians selected, 100 had died by the end of 2005 – almost twice as many as would be expected from an average group of the same age. Deaths are highest in the early years of fame, with US and European musicians alike suffering more than three times as many as would be expected in their first five years.
Mark Bellis writes in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health:
“Young deaths of popular musicians receive widespread media coverage, yet relatively little attention is paid to numerous premature deaths routinely occurring in the general population.” So the general impression could be a false one.
“Musicians can disappear from public attention as they age and deaths in older musicians may go unnoticed, leaving a disproportionate impression of premature deaths.”
American musicians continue to die in greater numbers. Over the first 25 years, the risk of dying is 1.7 times higher. A rock survivor in Europe, more than 25 years after achieving fame, has a death rate slightly higher than a contemporary with a more conventional career.
A disproportionate number of deaths are caused by drink or drugs.
In Europe, these killed 28% of the musicians who had died; drug or alcohol-related accidents accounted for 7%, and resultant chronic disorders 3.5%.
In the U.S., overdoses caused 15% of deaths, chonic disorders related to abuse 10%, and drink and drug accidents 3%. Heart disease accounted for  18% among the Americans.
The median age of death is lower in Europe - 35 rather than 42. Europeans may start their careers younger and die early of immediate insults to the system, while Americans contract degenerative diseases.