Academic IELTS Task 1 model answer 20 – Expenditure on music. This is a Band 9.0 (top score) model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The pie charts illustrate the changes in spending patterns in Northern Ireland with regards to music.
The first set of data is for 2003, where it can be seen that the majority of expenditure was for CDs, accounting for well over half. Just under one third of the money was spent attending concerts, standing at 31%. Downloaded music was only 6%, and the smallest category was that labeled ‘other’.
Three years later, the order of the four categories was the same, but there was a marked increase in the sale of digital music and an inverse correlation to the sale of CDs, which fell by 20% to 41%.
By 2011, digital purchases had overtaken both concerts and CDs and accounted for nearly half of all sales. The difference between CDs and concert sales narrowed to only 2%, and the ‘other’ category rose slightly to 3%.
Overall, it is clear that while concert sales remained relatively stable at around one third, digital music sales became more common than CD sales.
(170 words)