Poll finds willingness to pay for digital content

The Internet has disrupted revenue streams for industries like music and publishing, but a new survey released today gives hope for the future - about 65 percent of American online users have paid for some form of digital content.

The survey by the Pew Research Center also found that the typical Internet user paid about $10 per month for online content, including digital music, software, games and smart-phone apps. The heaviest spenders took the average to $47 per month.

The challenge for businesses that used to rely on selling physical goods, such as a CD or a printed page, continues to be finding the right price to sell the digital versions of their products, said Jim Jansen, the lead researcher for the report.

But the study does show that Internet users, particularly those who are younger and with higher incomes, are willing to pay for online content that otherwise might be available for free.

"There is a segment of younger folks who have grown up with iTunes and Netflix, and they are a little more willing to pay out 99 cents for a song or $4.99 for a movie rather than ripping it off somewhere," Jansen said.

"There will be a lot of business models developing," he said. "Apple and Netflix have been two stellar examples of companies that have made it work."

The center's Internet & American Life Project, which conducts numerous studies on American technology trends, focused for the first time on buying habits for "intangible" digital content - such as software, news stories and music - that didn't have to come in a physical form.

Jansen said one surprise was that the percentage of Internet users who have paid for digital content is about the same - two-thirds - as those who have purchased "tangible" products like clothes, CDs, books, computers, hotel reservations and airline tickets.

The study found 33 percent have paid for digital music and software, 21 percent paid for smart-phone or tablet computer apps and 19 percent paid for digital games.

Also, 18 percent paid for digital newspaper, magazine or journal articles or reports; 16 percent paid for videos, movies or TV shows; 15 percent bought ring tones; 12 percent bought digital photos; and 10 percent bought e-books.

The study also found:

-- 11 percent paid for premium content on websites that also offered free content.

-- 23 percent of Internet users paid for subscription services, 16 percent for downloading individual files and 8 percent for streaming content.

-- Men and women were equally likely to pay for content, although men were more likely to buy software.

-- College graduates and people with annual household incomes of $75,000 or higher were more likely to buy digital versions of newspaper or magazine articles or reports.

-- People ages 18 to 49 were more likely than older Americans to pay for online video, movies or TV.

-- 5 percent said they bought cheat codes for video games, while 2 percent paid for adult content.

The results came from telephone interviews with 1,003 adults conducted from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1. Of those, 755 were Internet users. The study had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.

Online info: For more on the study, go to sfg.ly/fyKmcj.

E-mail Benny Evangelista at bevangelista@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle