How Teenagers Listen To Music, In 1 Chart

NPR | By Zoe Chace

Published August 15, 2012 at 10:29 AM EDT

Radio and iTunes, sure.

But we wouldn't have guessed that more kids these days listen to music on YouTube than on anything else. Also surprising: The continued survival of CDs.

But maybe it shouldn't be. Year after year, people want to write the CDs-are-over story. And, yes, CD sales are falling — but they aren't falling that fast. Sales fell by 3 percent in the first half of this year, and the music industry is on pace to sell about 300 million CDs this year.

The figures in the chart come from a report Nielsen released yesterday. It has lots more on how people discover and listen to music.

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Zoe Chace

Zoe Chace explains the mysteries of the global economy for NPR's Planet Money. As a reporter for the team, Chace knows how to find compelling stories in unlikely places, including a lollipop factory in Ohio struggling to stay open, a pasta plant in Italy where everyone calls in sick, and a recording studio in New York mixing Rihanna's next hit.