The 20- to 24-year-olds age group are the biggest spenders on downloads with two-thirds paying up to £10 a month and 9% paying between £10 and £25 a month.
The majority of those surveyed listen to music on their PCs or MP3 players, with 85% of them already owning an ipod.
The youngest respondents in the survey are the heaviest users of free downloads, with almost half of 11- to 15-year-olds taking advantage of the free service with 43% paying up to £10 a month in this young age group.
Three-quarters of respondents said that they would like to be able to listen to music on their mobile phones although only 3% have downloaded tracks directly to their mobile from the internet because of the cost.
Less than half of those surveyed said they would definitely accept advertising messages in exchange for free MP3 file downloads, with 34% saying "maybe" and 18% saying "no". Of those who said yes, the majority belonged to the youngest age group, suggesting caution comes with age.
Dr Liz Nelson, from Q Research, said: "This survey shows that while there is already a very buoyant market for paying for MP3 files from the internet among young people, they are very aware of the cost of downloading files to their phones.
"This finding is underlined by other projects we have done, where we've discovered opposition among young people to watching video or receiving video ads to their mobile because of the cost."
She added that with so many companies creating additional services to be delivered by mobile phone, from music to social networking, it was crucial that they get really close to young people to understand their attitudes and opinions before launching services aimed at them.
The majority of those surveyed listen to music on their PCs or MP3 players, with 85% of them already owning an ipod.
The youngest respondents in the survey are the heaviest users of free downloads, with almost half of 11- to 15-year-olds taking advantage of the free service with 43% paying up to £10 a month in this young age group.
Three-quarters of respondents said that they would like to be able to listen to music on their mobile phones although only 3% have downloaded tracks directly to their mobile from the internet because of the cost.
Less than half of those surveyed said they would definitely accept advertising messages in exchange for free MP3 file downloads, with 34% saying "maybe" and 18% saying "no". Of those who said yes, the majority belonged to the youngest age group, suggesting caution comes with age.
Dr Liz Nelson, from Q Research, said: "This survey shows that while there is already a very buoyant market for paying for MP3 files from the internet among young people, they are very aware of the cost of downloading files to their phones.
"This finding is underlined by other projects we have done, where we've discovered opposition among young people to watching video or receiving video ads to their mobile because of the cost."
She added that with so many companies creating additional services to be delivered by mobile phone, from music to social networking, it was crucial that they get really close to young people to understand their attitudes and opinions before launching services aimed at them.