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American Demographics, May 1, 2003

Byline: Simona Covel

www.riaa.com

If you haven't yet given up on cassette tapes, you may be the only one. In 2000, sales of music CDs reached $13.2 billion in the U.S., compared with $626 million in cassette sales, according to the Web site of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rock is by far the most popular type of music, garnering a quarter of those sales. But fans of religious music are gaining ground: 7 percent of sales were of this genre in 2001, compared with just 3 percent in 1992. This site also provides reports on listener habits and tastes in PDF format. Most of the good stuff is accessible on the site's "Market Data" section, such as findings from the RIAA annual survey of music fans, which includes data on demographics and purchasing habits dating back to 1996.