Survey: 49% of U.S. tweens buy music on iTunes

Despite the easy availability of pirated music, most U.S. kids in the 9-to-14-year-old "tween" bracket are now paying for at least some of their music downloads.

That's the key finding of "Kids & Digital Content," a survey issued Wednesday by the NPD Group. According to NPD, 70% of U.S. tweens download digital music in an average month. Among them, nearly half (49%) used Apple's (AAPL) iTunes to get their songs and 16% used MySpace (NWS).

However, the second most popular source of digital music, used by more than a quarter (26%) of the group, was the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Limewire.

"The recording industry has focused on high-profile litigation programs as a deterrent, and education initiatives to communicate alternatives to illegal music file sharing," said NPD vice president Russ Crupnick. "Findings in this report suggest that the industry can still do more to promote specific ways children can obtain digital music legally, through pre-paid accounts and gift cards."

Of course, all this assumes that the 3,376 kids who sent in completed surveys told the NPD the truth, not what they thought the survey group wanted to hear.