DOWNLOADING is no longer a boys’ club. Women have seized control of the iPod with a 700 per cent increase in their share of digital music spending.

The image of a middle-aged man hoovering up classic rock releases on iTunes is out of date. Attractive portable players and a new breed of melodic songwriters have led to a surge in young women joining the download revolution. Last year men accounted for 96 per cent of all spending on legal music downloads. But figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) indicate that women’s spending has soared to account for 31 per cent of the market.

Women aged 25 to 34 spend the most on digital music, and the most popular download of the year so far is You’re Beautiful, by James Blunt. Dance music is also a popular accompaniment for women wired up to iPods on the move or working out at the gym.

Peter Jamieson, the chairman of the BPI, said: “This time last year the market was driven by technologically savvy early adopters, usually older male buyers. But female music buyers are clearly taking advantage of these new services.”

Female buyers have been attracted to the convenience of chic, pocket-size devices, such as the iPod Nano. Apple courted women by introducing a mini-iPod in pastel pink last summer. And thousands of women surfing online stores each week are finding that men have mystified unnecessarily the downloading language of MP3s, GBs and WMAs.

The Scottish singer KT Tunstall offers downloads of Eye to the Telescope, her double-platinum album, at 99p per track. But she joined the download revolution as a consumer only last week. “My first download was Teenage Kicks, by the Undertones, last Saturday,” she told The Times. “I needed to learn it to play on John Peel Day, so I went on the iTunes store and paid my 79p. I found it really easy to use.”

Tunstall is one of the most popular artists with female downloaders, along with the melody-based artists Blunt, Katie Melua, the Magic Numbers and Charlotte Church. Tunstall said: “We know that boys like twisting knobs, and it’s great that the technical advances are now being taken up by women.” She said, however, that she prefers the thrill of unwrapping an album package.

The market in portable music players challenges a perception that women prefer mobile phones and digital cameras because of their social element, whereas men go for solitary pleasures, such as laptops and gaming consoles. Research indicates that women prefer intuitive technology, gadgets that can be used straight from the box without a manual.

The download market is booming, with 17.5 million tracks sold so far this year, compared with 5.7 million in 2004. But a small number of music buffs with high disposable incomes is buying a lot of tracks. The average record buyer makes four CD purchases a year, but those making 20 purchases or more a year are responsible for about 20 per cent of all downloads sold.

The BPI survey estimated that only 2.6 per cent had downloaded music legally this year. Several thousand British men aged 35 to 44 are spending hundreds of pounds on impulse one-click downloads. But do their partners know?

TOP TUNES

1 You’re Beautiful, James Blunt

2 Bad Day, Daniel Powter

3 Don’t Cha, Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes

4 Dare, Gorillaz

5 Ghetto Gospel, 2pac featuring Elton John

6 I Predict a Riot, Kaiser Chiefs

7 Since U Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson

8 Don’t Lie, Black Eyed Peas

9 The Importance of Being Idle, Oasis

10 Crazy Chick, Charlotte Church

Top Ten downloads July-Sept

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