Ringtone sales fall blamed on music downloads

Sales of mobile phone ringtones have collapsed in Australia over the past two years according to a new report from business consultants. News.com.au reports.

According to the latest IBISWorld report, ringtone sales fell by 17.3 per cent in 2008, up from 3 per cent in 2007.

Senior analyst Edward Butler said the poor performance of ringtone sales was likely due to increased sales of digital music.

"The biggest driver is that now people have the capacity to download songs on their phone," he said.

"With the release of the iPhone and things like BigPond having whole libraries of songs that you can download and the capacity to manipulate those songs and turn them into ringtones, there’s much less motivation to download a thirty second grab of the song."

Mr Butler also believes there has been a backlash against ringtone providers.

Sites like iTunes, Bigpond and Amazon that have downloads of MP3s available are seen as more reputable and safer."

Sales of mobile master ringtones hit a high in 2006, with 10 million ringtones sold – up from 3.7 million in 2005.

mSpot Reaches 6 Million Mobile Users

Mobile music and entertainment provider mSpot said its downloadable content now reaches 6 million cell phone subscribers, up threefold from July 2008. [via Mediapost]

The Palo Alto-based company has struck partnerships with wireless operators including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular to offer its Make-UR-Tones custom ringtone service with music EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.

Started in 2004, mSpot reports over 1 million downloads of the Make-UR-Tones app and 3.5 million users of its Movies on Demand service. The company also has mobile radio deals with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel, among others.

Mobile music revenues to grow to $5.5B by 2013

Revenues from streaming mobile music services and full-track downloads are expected to increase from $2.5 billion in 2009 to nearly $5.5 billion in 2013 according to a new report released by market analyst firm Juniper Research. FierceMobile Content.

Juniper notes that despite declining revenues from traditional mobile music services like polyphonic ringtones and realtones, consumer adoption of more sophisticated services is surging.

Read full article.

Mobile Music To Hit $14.6 Billion In 2013

From mocoNews:

Juniper Research has predicted that the total mobile music services market will hit nearly $14.6 billion by 2013. Although there will be a sharp fall in ringtone revenues as users find alternatives this will be more than offset by growth in full-track downloads, streamed music services and ringback tones.

Driving the growth are improvements in technology (higher memory, handset form factors, reduction of data costs) as well as an increase in the willingness of major labels to participate in mobile ventures. User-generated content will also help raise the total.

This is a massive reduction from their predictions of a year ago, when Juniper thought total mobile music sales would hit $17.6 billion by 2012.

Mobile music will thrive despite ringtone dropoff

Ringtones, typically mobile music’s saving grace, took a hit in 2008, but not enough to effect mobile music’s overall growth.

Global revenue from mobile music services will reach nearly $14.6 billion by 2013, according to a Juniper Research report, and a sharp fall in ringtone revenue will be more than offset by growth in full-track downloads, streamed music services and ringback tones.

[via Telephony Online]

Shazam adds 15 million new users in six months

Mobile music discovery provider Shazam announced it has added 15 million new users in the last six months alone.

According to Shazam, its userbase grew from 20 million worldwide in September 2008 to a current total of 35 million--in addition, users are now tagging more than a million tracks each day.

A significant chunk of Shazam's growth is tied to its success on Apple's iPhone--in late September, the firm said more than 1.5 million users downloaded the application in the six weeks following its debut on Apple's App Store.

The Shazam service is now deployed across 75 carriers in 60 countries, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Vodafone. The application enables users to identify music from any audio source by holding their mobiles to the song for a few seconds--after pinpointing the track in question, Shazam offers premium downloads via the operator's dedicated music store.

[FierceMobile Content press release]

Some ringtones stats

According to a 2008 study by Ipsos MediaCT, a marketing research company, approximately one-third of mobile phone users download ringtones, and about 40 percent of users change their ringtones frequently.
CNN reports.

Ipsos research shows that ringtones are the most common type of mobile music content downloaded by users, compared to full-length songs and ringback tones, tones that replace the typical ringing signal heard by the caller.

... Customizing a phone with multiple ringtones can be expensive. Depending on the wireless carrier or the service plan, ringtones cost anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99. That may not deter cell phone users. Analysts at Screen Digest, a UK-based firm covering global media markets, predicted that mobile music sales will double from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $3.2 billion in 2012.

Music sales worldwide fall by 7 percent

Music sales worldwide fell by about 7 percent last year as another sizable jump in digital sales failed to make up for a deepening decline in the compact disc market, according to John Kennedy, chief executive of the industry's main international trade group. The IHT reports.

Revenue from music sold over the Internet, via mobile phones and in other digital forms, rose by 25 percent last year, to $3.7 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report set for publication Friday. Digital sales accounted for 20 percent of the industry's revenue, up from 15 percent a year earlier.

... Meanwhile, growth in downloads from online music stores like Apple's iTunes has slowed. ... That is hastening the music industry's push to develop new business models for digital music.

... Major record labels have joined with Nokia, the maker of cellphones, to provide free, unlimited music downloads in Britain. ... "The industry has shifted to Plan B," said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. "The record companies have realized that the only way they can fight free is with free itself."

Music album sales tumble further in 2008

U.S. album sales slid for a seventh time in eight years in 2008 as growth in the digital arena, one of the few bright spots in the ailing music industry, slowed, according to data issued on Wednesday, reports Reuters.

... Digital downloads, through online retailers such as Apple Inc's iTunes store, have taken on greater importance to the industry, but the impressive growth of recent years is waning.

... Ringtones are also a major new focus. But purchases of the top 100 mastertone ringers slid 33 percent to 43.8 million units. Only one mastertone broke the 2 million mark -- rapper Lil Wayne's "Lollipop." Last year, three did.

Flo Rida boasts top ringtone in Australia for 2008

American rapper Flo Rida is top of the pops in Australia for 2008. But rather than the usual singles chart, it's Telstra's top ringtones of the year. news.com reports.

Flo Rida's smutty rap hit single Low beat Pink's So What and Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon to take the honour as the ringtone most downloaded from BigPond Mobile.

Australians spent about $30 million this year buying more than five million ringtones, according to Australian Performing Rights Association digital recordings manager Frank Roveta.

Mr Roveta said the Australian ringtone market had fallen from its peak in 2007, when it was worth about $50 million.

"The novelty of phones being able to play songs for ringtones may be wearing off," he said.

Mobile Music Sales Will Reach $3.2 Billion by 2012 But Analysts Say 'Tracks Must Be Free'

The music industry has got to be prepared to give music away for free, according to analysts SScreen Digest. The Washington Post reports.

In a study of 27 countries including the UK, US and western Europe, Screen Digest predicts mobile music sales will double from $1.6 billion (£1.26 billion) this year to $3.2 billion (£2.52 billion) in 2012.

But full-track downloads will only make up half of that, with the rest still coming from things like ringtones. The report warns "paying for music is progressively becoming a niche activity as the value of recorded music is already in steep, possibly terminal, decline".

Online seen claiming 41 pct share of U.S. music market

Digital music sales account for 18 percent of the U.S. music market and that figure will grow to 41 percent in five years, Forrester Research said in a report released on Monday.

The report titled "US Music Forecast, 2008 to 2013" also forecast that 55 percent of U.S. online consumers will pay to download digital music in 2013.

[via Reuters]

Another label sees big digital-music growth

On Tuesday, Warner reported that digital sales in the quarter ended September 30 grew 27 percent to $167 million, up from $131 million during the same period last year. News.com reports.

... Two weeks ago, Universal Music Group, the largest of the four top labels, said digital music sales were up 33 percent for the first nine months of 2008. According to parent company Vivendi, this "more than offset lower physical sales."

Ever since the onset of digital music and the creation of file-sharing sites, such as Napster, the major music companies have slowly been forced to shift from physical CD sales to digital downloads. It appears now that digital revenue is making up for some of the losses in disc sales.

Verizon’s Song ID app downloaded 10 million times

Verizon Wireless announced that their song-identifying app, Song ID, has been downloaded for 10 million times.

Furthermore, since it was launched in May 2007, users have requested more than 100 million titles using Song ID.

[via intomobile]

Mobile Music Business Sluggish?

According to a new Jupiter research report reckons, only five percent of U.S. mobile subscribers side load tunes from their computer while less than half of that, two percent, download tracks over the air, despite the emergence of online stores from Nokia, Jamba and MusicStation. InternetCommunications reports.

According toJupiter Research, about 66 percent of respondents to a recent survey said nothing would motivate them to listen to music on a mobile. That's a bit of a shock given the success of theiPhone ( News - Alert), a device some have speculated will replace the iPod itself.

About 14 percent of users said they wanted over-the-air tunes. About 16 percent of respondents say they assign ringtones to phone book contacts, says Robert Andrews, mocoNews.net writer.

RINGTONES KILLED THE HIP-HOP STAR

According to the NY Press, a look at 2007’s most popular ringtones reveals that while the chart is top heavy with rap songs, it is almost completely void of New York artists last year.

"The reasoning is easy: New York beats are more head-nodding backdrops for intricate rhyme schemes than they are catchy ringtone fodder for teenyboppers. Absent a catchy hook, too many NY rap songs are consigned to non-ringtone irrelevance.

“If you don’t write [a hook], you don’t get on the radio, don’t make easy ringtones and you don’t get teenagers to download them,” author Nelson George explains. “At the end of the day, hip-hop is now dance music. Clever rhymes are cool commercially, but they’re not what sells records these days.”

... 220 million ringtones were sold, according to Nielsen Ringscan, for sales of $567 million. "

MySpace Music: 1 Billion Songs Streamed “In A Few Days”

MySpace is claiming that its MySpace Musicservice has already streamed well over a billion songs since launching on September 25.

... Notably, it took iTunes nearly three years reach the same milestone, although it’s hardly a meaningful comparison seeing as MySpace tunes are free to stream while on iTunes punters were asked to shell out $0.99 a pop.

[via digital lifestyles]

Ringback Tones Worth $4.7 Billion in 2012

Ringback tones are on track to become the most attractive mobile content category by 2012, according to new market research from MultiMedia Intelligence.

With worldwide revenue nearly tripling to $4.7 billion, ringback tones will fall just short of mobile gaming revenue in capturing the largest share of the mobile premium content market (not including mobile video and mobile TV).

Ringback tones are quickly becoming the 'Golden Child' of the mobile music market, due to a winning combination of consumer popularity, and minimal impact from DRM or piracy," according to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer with MultiMedia Intelligence. "The current leading mobile premium content category of realtones is already facing challenges. Consumers increasingly are able to create their own ringtones. The price disparity compared to a full track download is also a growing factor."

[via Cellular News]

Growth remains slow for mobile music services

According to Forrester Research, U.S. music fans purchased $1.7 billion worth of music downloads in 2007 (singles and albums combined) but spent only $249 million on subscription services.

While the firm projects download revenue to surge 65 percent this year to $2.8 billion, it expects subscription revenue to climb a far more modest 15 percent to $287 million.

[via Reuters]

iTunes sells five billionth song

Apple announced it has sold over five billion songs through iTunes, making it the biggest US music retailer.

[via 9to5Mac]

CD sales falling faster than digital music sales rise

Music sales fell to their lowest level in at least 10 years as an increase in digital content sales failed to make up for declines in compact discs and the effects of piracy, reports the IHT.

Global music sales dropped 8 percent to $19.4 billion in 2007, according to a report from theInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Mobile Music on Track in Germany

The mobile music market in Germany has long focused on ringtones, but full-track downloads are selling in increasingly larger numbers, reports eMarketer.

"According to new figures from BITKOM and GfK Panel Services, 5.2 million full-track songs were downloaded to mobile phones last year, an increase of 53% over 2006.

Revenues grew by one-third to hit €8 million ($11 million), while the average price of a song dropped to €1.42 ($1.95).

Greater memory capacity and the increased uptake of faster mobile services are helping fuel the growth.

Downloading of ringtones, meanwhile, is on the decline. German mobile users downloaded 23.2 million ringtones in 2007, a notable drop from 29.2 million in 2006.

Ringtone revenues fell 26% to €53 million ($73 million). That is still more than six times the revenue for full-track downloads, but if current trends continue, ringtones' dominant position may not hold."

Devotional music dominates mobile VAS market

Indians have a strong affinity for Bollywood and devotional music, which they like to listen to ‘on-the-go.’ No wonder, there is a huge demand for such ringtones and caller tunes. The mobile VAS market, which includes about 25% of the total music business in the country, is dominated by these music categories.

Mobile music downloads, comprising mainly Bollywood, spiritual and even regional genres, is growing rapidly. These are expected to make India’s mobile music market worth $800 million by 2009, up from $100 million in 2005.

[via India Economic Times]

Full Track Downloads In Japan Rise 91 Percent In 2007

Mobile music is again the shining light in Japan, making up for the decline in CD sales. [via MocoNews]

“Total music sales for 2007 in Japan came to $4.66 billion. While CD/DVD sales declined 4 percent from the previous year, digital downloads jumped up 41 percent to $755 million, comprising 16 percent of all music sold in Japan.

Mobile downloads accounted for $680 million, more than 90 percent of the total figure for digital sales.

Within the mobile sector, full-track downloads showed the strongest growth, rising 91 percent over the previous year” writes J@pan Inc in its Music Media Watch newsletter, quoting the RIAJ Yearbook 2008."

Image from future perfect.

Mobile Music Numbers added up

According to data from research firm M:Metrics, only about 15% of mobile users even buy ringtones, and far less buy full songs, ringback tones and other products.

... Digital music revenue in total contributes roughly 30% to labels' overall revenue pie. Mobile makes up about half that total, with ringtones making up about 75% of the mobile figure. So at best, all other mobile music applications combined contribute maybe 3% to a label's bottom line.

[via Reuters]

Mobile music is shooting up the charts

The mobile phone industry is finding new revenue by offering streaming radio and music downloads to consumers who want to consolidate their digital devices. BizJournal reports.

"Mobile phones across the globe are getting high-tech upgrades that allow them to be used as debit cards and as portable Internet devices, but music applications are among the fastest growing services for mobile phones, according to a study released in February by market researcher TNS Global Technology.

In 2007, the number of mobile phone users who listened to the radio via their phones grew 140 percent over the previous year, while 78 percent more used their phones as mp3 players, according to TNS data.

About 43 percent of mobile users across the globe access music with their phones, the report shows."

BMI says ringtone sales are falling

Broadcast Music Inc. is projecting U.S. sales of mobile phone ringtones will fall in 2008 compared to last year. The Associated Press reports.

"It expects ringtone sales will total about $510 million this year, down 7 percent from 2007.

It says demand has waned for the audio clips used to customize cell phone rings in part because new handsets that play music let customers use audio from their own collections instead.

The company expects U.S. sales of another type of mobile music product — ringback tones — to grow 50 percent this year to more than $210 million."

Callers hear ringback tones while calling

Music phones pass half a billion

According to research company MultiMedia Intelligence, a half a billion music phones were sold in 2007. Mobile Entertainment reports.

"The research company says the figure beats the iPod and other personal media players by 300 million units, making phone the most popular portable music device.

MultiMedia Intelligence says it expects music phone shipments to reach 941 million units in 2011 - accounting for half of all handsets sold.

The reports also states that the global mobile music content market ringtones, ringback tones, streaming audio and full-track downloads) will hit $6 billion this year."

1.1 billion mobile music phones to be sold in 2010

About 1.1 billion mobile phones with music players will be sold worldwide in 2010, almost double the 614 million sold last year, said Tina Teng, an analyst at researcher iSuppli Corp.

[via The Los Angeles Times]

Number Two U.S. Music Retailer is iTunes

Apple’s iTunes digital media store has beat out Best Buy and Target to become the second largest music retailer in the United States. Wal-Mart is still number one according to data released today from the tracking firm NPD Group.

[via Mobile Crunch]

The Value of the Mobile Music Market

The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads, according to a new report by Juniper Research.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "I think it's fair to say that 2007 marked the tipping point as far as mobile music adoption was concerned. Far more subscribers began downloading and subscribing to music content in developed markets, and it must be said that that the publicity surrounding the iPhone launch undoubtedly contributed to consumer awareness of mobile music services per se."

However, the Juniper report also argues that current prices for ringtones are unsustainable and that the market for such services may already have peaked in a number of developed markets, arguing that competitive pricing allied to a steady migration to ad-funded and/or self-generated ringtones will lead to a gradual decline in global ringtone revenues. "

[via Press release]

College fight songs ring up ringtone profits

Independent music publishing company Carlin America purchased the rights to the fight songs of Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana State and about 95 other universities when it acquired another publishing company in 1999.

Now it's making about $100,000 annually selling rights to fight songs played by all sorts of gadgets for fans. While schools make money licensing their names and slogans for products like T-shirts, they generally don't profit from their own fight songs.

[via USA Today]

Music on Mobiles found to be a Favorite in China

More than a third of mobile phone owners in China, the world's largest mobile market, use their handsets to listen to music, more than in Britain or the United States, a study showed. I4U reports.

"Some 34.8 percent reported they listened to mobile music every month compared with 20 percent in Spain, 18.9 percent in Britain and 5.7 percent in the United States, according to M:Metrics, a research firm that monitors mobile media usage."

Warner’s ringtone sales echo industry woes

The FT reports that sales of Warner Music ingtones in the US declined in the final three months of last year.

"Warner announced a $16m (£8m) first-quarter loss, a reminder of the struggle music companies face as they try to develop durable new digital products to make up for the continued erosion in physical album sales.

The US ringtones market grew 45 per cent to $873m in 2006, according to Jupiter Media. At the time it was viewed by many music executives as a vast source of new profits.

Warner’s results on Wednesday appeared to confirm other recent reports that the category had seen growth in international markets reach a plateau.

Jupiter predicts sales in the US will top out at no more than $1bn."

Brazil to Dominate Latin American Ringtone Marke

Latin American ringtones billing will reach US$1.6 Billion by 2012, with Brazil representing over 36% of the region's income, says a report from Signals Telecom. Cellular News reports.

"The Ring Tones markets in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela combined are expected to reach a 26.75% annual growth rate during the 2007- 2012 period. However, developments in Brazil's market will depend on removing regulatory hurdles in its music industry.

Signals points out that Ring Tones market growth is possible due to an increase in the youth segment of its user base, in addition to mobile data downloading as a basic application for digital musical reproduction."

Global music sales fell around 10 percent in 2007

Sales of music fell at a faster rate in 2007 than 2006 despite digital sales soaring, and the gatekeepers of the Web must act if the industry is to beat piracy, the international trade body said on Thursday. Reuters reports.

"Global digital sales grew by around 40 percent in 2007, the IFPI group said, but this was not enough to offset the sharp fall in CD sales, meaning the overall market is expected to be down around 10 percent for 2007."

USA. 52% of phones sold play music

As of November 2007, camera phones represented 79% of U.S. handset sales, cameras that capture video accounted for 56%, and 52% of phones could play music, according to NPD Group's Mobile Phone Track.

[via RCRWireless News]

Japanese Mobile Music Bits

The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) has released the results of a survey of 1,054 people, which found that 37.1 percent said they use illegal sites for mobile music downloads, and 14 percent said they upload files to the sites.

RIAJ estimates that more than 399 million mobile tracks were illegally downloaded in Japan last year, but the release is in Japanese, so I can’t delve into the details.

[via Moco News]

83 Percent Of Mobile Music Sideloaded: Report

The most common method of getting music onto a phone is sideloading, which accounted for 83 percent of mobile music usage across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States in November according to M:Metrics.

The measurement firm found that 10.7 percent of mobile subscribers across the six geographies reported listening to music on their mobile device, ranging from 5.7 percent in the United States to 20 percent in Spain.

Breakdown of mobile usage per country posted on Moco News

U.S. album sales down, digital sales up

U.S. album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, continuing a downward trend for the recording industry, despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, according to figures released Thursday.

-- A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006's unit total.

-- About 844.2 million digital tracks sold in 2007, compared to 588.2 million in 2006.

-- Last year, Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S.

-- The recording industry continued to benefit from mobile music, with mobile phone owners buying 220 million ringtones.

[via the Associated Press]

UK Music Downloads Reach Record High

Figures released on behalf of music industry analysts Verdict showed a significant growth in the sale of music downloads and ringtones over 2007 compared with previous years, with the prediction that sales could top £163 million by the end of this calendar year.

[via Investment Markets]

iTunes Store rings up 3 billionth song

Apple announced this morning that over 3 billion songs have been sold through its online music store. The milestone not only marks a major feat for Apple, but also for the digital music industry as a whole. [via ars technica]

Survey finds pirate downloads at all-time high and set to rise

According to The Guardian, illegal music downloading is at an all-time high and set to rise further, according to a report out today that urges the record industry to make legal buying easier and cheaper.

"Its fourth annual Digital Music Survey, a poll of 1,700 people, suggests illegal music buying is widespread, with 43% claiming that they are illegally downloading tracks, rising from 36% last year and 40% in 2005.

... The latest Digital Music Survey does have some upbeat findings, however. More than half of the respondents use social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace to discover new music."

British CD sales drop 10% in 2007

Music fans the UK are continuing to abandon the buying of CDs, with sales down by 10% in the first half of 2007. The BBC reports.

"Figures compiled by the British Phonographic Industry show that 6.5m fewer albums have been sold this year compared with the same period in 2006.

... The digital market continues to grow - with a 50% increase in digital single purchases in the first six months of the year, according to the BPI's figures.

But downloads still only account for 10-20% of the overall music market, and that figure includes formats such as ringtones".

UK labels look to mobile

UK labels are looking to the mobile phone industry to kick-start growth in digital music sales, said industry body the BPI this morning, reports macworld.

"The BPI notes that UK consumers are Europe's biggest mobile downloaders, with mobile services boosting current growth in digital music sales

While demand for older monophonic and polyphonic ringtones is in decline, record labels are set to benefit as new business models emerge in mobile, creating new markets for recorded music.

.. Digital music consultancy MusicAlly estimate that UK consumers download up to 1.3 million tracks per month using their mobiles."