According to market research by the NPD Group—who give out monthly console sales figures and other fun statistical fodder for flamewars—50 percent of all Mac users paid to download music during the last quarter, while a seemingly laughable 16 percent of PC users did. Mac drones are plus more likely to buy real live CDs (32 percent) than PC humans (28 percent). But before we light the fires and let loose the dogs of war, let's give the numbers a once-over.

The key numbers are that only 56 percent of Mac-huggers reportedly listen to music on their machine, with an even smaller 31 percent of PC plebes doing so. It would explain the yawning chasm here—if 69 percent (heh) of PC users aren't even listening to music on their comp (like your mom), they're probably not going to pay to download

music, comprising most of the 84 percent.

On the other hand, they propose a startlingly high number of Mac disciples who involve their computer in their music habits plus regularly pay to hit the iTunes bong—the 50 percent who pay to download music undoubtedly comprise most of the 56 percent who listen to music on their machine.

Also, keep in mind Macs still only have about a 6 percent marketshare, so the raw numbers would look all kinds of different, since the PC users are a massively larger subsection of the population. But we’ll leave the speculation on why Mac users feel more inclined to actually compensate artists to you guys in the comments. [Digital Trends]

Original post by Matt Buchanan