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UK top for mobile downloads
Posted on 11 Jun 2007 at 13:52
UK music fans are Europe's biggest mobile downloaders. Twelve per cent of UK consumers play music on their mobiles, more than anywhere else on the continent, according to figures released by the UK music industry trade association, the BPI. Up to 1.3 million tracks per month are also downloaded to mobile phones in the UK, it states.
And advances in mobile technology are set to create new markets for mobile music, believes the BPI.
Previously, it says, the high costs of downloading files over mobile networks, consumer confusion over differing services and low 3G penetration were barriers to market growth. But now costs are falling, mobile companies are marketing their music services more effectively and consumers are becoming more 'mobile-savvy'.
'The record industry's core business, working in partnership with artists to produce great new music, remains the same. But the ways in which record companies can generate returns on their investments has changed dramatically in a few short years and mobile is helping to drive that change.
'Just five years ago, CD sales were the recording industry's only significant source of income but digital distribution, mobile and online, has created a myriad of new business models that labels are now driving forward,' said BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor. 'Having already captured the imagination of UK music buyers, legal downloads have transformed the singles business; record labels are set to capitalise upon further developments in mobile technology in this rapidly changing business climate.'
Even though the market is far from fully developed, 3 claims that 20 per cent of sales of Gnarls Barkley's huge hit Crazy were made over its network, which accounts for 10 per cent of all singles sales.
Four out of ten UK mobiles can play music, the highest penetration of music phones in Europe, well ahead of Germany with 34 per cent. At the same time one in five mobile users are prepared to buy content using their mobiles, according to a recent Informa study, and this figure is expected to increase as mobile services become easier to use and prices fall.
The music industry will also benefit from the shift from monophonic and polyphonic ringtones to real recordings, usually known in the business as realtones, truetones or mastertones. Already 43 per cent of the ringtone market, realtone sales are expected to increase by 56 per cent this year. That growth is fuelled in part by the 'embarrassment' factor. Eight in 10 consumers regularly change ringtones for fear of ridicule, according to a Dial-A-Phone survey.
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