Singapore – Singaporean youth spent more time listening to music with over two-thirds (67%) admitting that music is a very important part of their lives while youth in South Korea (20%) and India (19%) were the leading groups to pay to download music off the internet. A total of forty-one percent of youth across the Asian region downloaded music for free with youth with China (55%), Malaysia (50%), Vietnam (49%) and Hong Kong (47%) being higher than average, according to the Branded and Synovate Music Matters survey released at the 2009 Music Matters Asia Pacific Music Forum in Hong Kong. In a study that explores how passionate youth are about music, what music-related activities they engage in and their attitudes towards a digital music future, Synovate surveyed 8,841 respondents aged 15 to 24 years in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The survey showed that music was particularly close to the hearts and minds of the young in India (83%) and the Philippines (80%); followed by Vietnam (77%), China (69%), Thailand (67%) and Indonesia (65%). “Our overall findings showed that 25% were listening to music more in the last 12 months while 29% of Singaporean youth had listen to music more,”said Miranda Cheung, managing director of Synovate Singapore.