http://www.digitalmusic2008.com Social media, which encompasses YouTube and its community elements, MySpace and Facebook, has been steadily growing in importance for consumers. Two years ago, a quarter of consumers had never visited a social network. By this year, only 7% hadn’t. The record industry has been relatively quick to exploit social media. It’s now standard practice to create artists’ pages on MySpace and also seed discussion forums and create controversy and buzz around new content – although as of May it’s illegal for any company to seed positive messages online without revealing their identity. But there are profound changes in the social media landscape. Firstly, the Digital Music Survey 2008 confirms how, for most consumers, video on YouTube is part and parcel of their enjoyment of music. Nearly half prefer to watch a music video if it is available rather than simply listen to a track and nearly three-quarters of them say they can find all the videos they want on YouTube. Video has long been crucial to music marketing and the rise of social media means that in 2008 it’s YouTube, not MTV, where this is being played out. For 41% of consumers, YouTube is now the single most important community site in terms of music. It’s a 14% jump on last year that coincides with an equivalent drop in MySpace’s popularity. More info on www.digitalmusic2008.com read less