A study into the potential impact of unlimited music download mobile packages has unveiled a UK market worth £1.6 billion a year.
Last week's statement by Sony Ericsson that it will partner with Omnifone to offer its PlayNow plus service is the latest in the race to bring unlimited music downloads bundles to market – kicked off by Nokia's recent announcement that its ‘Comes With Music' package will be available from next month. Research specialist TNS believes this latest concept could revolutionise the mobile marketplace – with over a quarter (26%) of consumers interested in buying into this offer.
The impact of millions of users switching to unlimited music downloads would be huge, says TNS. With consumers estimating that they would download 64 tracks per month on their phones, TNS identifies a potential for British buyers alone to download 2.1 billion tracks a year via their mobile phones – equating to £1.6 billion worth of music. With legal UK music downloads in 2007 standing at just 1.5 billion across all channels, the step-change that unlimited mobile downloads could bring will mean big business for mobile operators.
The study also indicates that the new bundled music download services could shift consumers' music habits away from older CD and PC-based technologies. 45% of CD buyers in Britain claim that they would buy fewer CDs if they adopted Nokia ‘Comes With Music', while 47% of PC music down-loaders would expect to reduce their PC downloading. And of significant interest for the music industry, 38 per cent of those who currently download pirated music would expect to reduce their illegal downloading activity following adoption of Nokia's service.
Amy Cashman, Managing Director of TNS Technology comments: "This research clearly underscores the powerful latent consumer demand for mobile music availability – which if successfully fulfilled will transform the way that people buy music as well as reducing illegal downloads.
"History indicates, however, that the execution against this demand has not always been ideal for consumers. For example, incompatible file formats, download restrictions and lack of choice have all conspired in the past to act as barriers against consumer take-up of digital music platforms. No doubt the industry will be watching closely to see if Nokia and Sony Ericsson will be able to move the goalposts substantially forward."