Three times as many people stream music videos as download music

"Here's some surprising good news for video aggregator YouTube: More Internet users watch music videos for free on YouTube than download music either through official sources like iTunes or even illegally. That discovery comes from Nielsen, who polled more than 25,000 users about their online music habits towards the end of last year.
Nielsen's report on the subject, "The Hyper-Fragmented World of Music," says that three times as many people stream music videos as download music, adding that audio-only streaming is also more popular than legal digital downloads ("Unfortunately," the report continues, "subscription models have yet to gain popularity with users"). Legal digital downloads are nonetheless globally popular, with the format experiencing double digit growth in Europe."

Source:  Research from Nielsen, reported by Techland, 12th April 2011

See the full Nielsen Study here