News
[PSUs]| Thursday 1st September 2005 |
We've been tracking this area and can reveal the results of our Music on the Move survey, which considered issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the current popularity for music on mobiles.
In the second of a two part series on digital music on the move, we consider the possibilities for using your mobile phone as a music centre. We find out how many of you use your phone to listen to music, the models involved, and what are the perceived advantages and disadvantages...
And thank you to all the respondents who took the time to take part in the survey - all 1,085 (you can read the first article here: Music on the move: music downloads and DRM).
Music at your service
The first question we asked was: Does your current mobile phone support listening to music? Thirty per cent of respondents had phones capable of playing music tracks, as against 56 per cent who didn't, with eight per cent saying they didn't know (six per cent, remarkably, did not own a mobile phone).
But having the functionality is one thing, taking advantage of it is another. When asked how often they listen, only 13 per cent of respondents listened 'sometimes', with a minimal four per cent listening 'very often'.
When it comes to the make of phone, Nokia clearly leads the way, ahead of Sony Ericsson, with Motorola and Samsung further behind. Specifically, the Nokia 6230 was by far the most popular for mobile phone music listeners. The only phones to come close were the Samsung D500 and the Sony Ericsson K700I, followed in turn by the Orange SPV C550 and Sony Ericsson K750I.
Size of the market
With the mobile music market expected by Jupiter Research to ring up $9.3 billion worth of revenues by 2009, the nascent 'full track' download market, which was worth just $20 million in 2004, is also projected to become a $1.8 billion business by 2009. But how ready is the market, and what are the perceptions of the potential consumers?
We asked: Whether or not you currently listen to music on your mobile phone, please choose what you think is the most important benefit of downloading music to a mobile phone?
The most attractive proposition for a phone-based music player is that you only have one device to carry around (53 per cent of respondents). Arguably this was a major factor in smartphones seeing off PDAs and, potentially, separate MP3 players could face the same threat to their status as the primary portable device.
Four per cent welcomed the prospect of integrated charging to their phone bills. This is an easily over-looked advantage, especially for service providers. Arguably this has already been a factor in the success of Orange's music service, Orange World.
Downloads cost £1.50 a track - more than downloading from online stores using a PC - but this doesn't appear to have put people off (a spokesperson for Orange said that March saw Orange
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Success may be down to a mixture of convenience and the billing mechanism. Mobile users are already used to paying a couple of quid, or more, for a ringtone. A full tune for £1.50 is undoubtedly better value, and unlike downloading on a PC, the bill is 'hidden' in your tariff, rather than appearing separately.
An optimistic six per cent saw an elimination of compatibility problems as another benefit. Whether Symbian versus Windows Mobile platform clashes would simply replace existing desktop divides, there is certainly a potential opportunity for phone manufacturers, such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, to enforce a common delivery mechanism on ISP-originating services.
Other possible benefits that were identified included the harvesting of more interesting ringtones, and the convenience of downloading straight to the device, without having to go via an intermediary computer. The latter is a strong point - imagine an MP3 player that could auto-load content?
However, a resolute 36 per cent of respondents said they don't see any benefits of downloading music to a mobile phone.
Problems, problems, problems
Finally, having mooted possible advantages, we sounded out possible disadvantages: Which is the biggest concern you may have about downloading music to a mobile phone?
The clear leader here was poor sound quality (24 per cent) and another obvious limitation was the danger of a phone being lost stolen and losing all the content you've paid for (15 per cent). Of course, it is equally possible for your iPod to be lost or stolen, but here the intermediary downloading preserves a backup.
Another concern was a lack of enough memory to store the music (19 per cent). Historically, of course, phone memory has been limited, but it is worth pointing out that whereas Flash-based players routinely have 512MB of storage, the Nokia N91 has a 4GB hard disk. It seems likely, with technological advances, that this issue is the most likely to be satisfactorily resolved.
Over 17 per cent identified drain on battery as the biggest concern. This, of course, is also an issue for MP3 devices, even if Sony claims 50 hours of battery life for its Bean player. It seems reasonable to assume, however, that the power optimizations that are already being made for mobiles will continue to advance. In the long term, as with the capacity issue, it is easy to believe this will be technically resolved.
Other major concerns included the cost of downloads. When we all have 3G phones - with their 'always on' connection - this need not be an issue, but until then we could be paying twice over (for the cost of the song and the duration of the call). One relevant comment was: 'I will not purchase music from my wireless provider. I just want an mp3 player built into my phone.'
Finally, another problem that was identified was the relatively rapid turn-over of phones compared to other music devices. 'Music files purchased may be tied to my phone so what do I do when I want a new phone in 18 months?' asked one person. A good point and one that the rapidly developing mobile industry will find hard to counter.
Music on the move: music downloads and DRM
The survey was carried out by Demographix.com
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