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."

Study. Peeling the Orange

Mobile phone company Orange will today publish its first ever digital media index, looking at the activities of its 15 million UK customers. And related to ringtones:

"The youth end of the market seems more taken with downloading songs onto their phones, with over a 250,000 music tracks, ringtones and music videos downloaded every month.

Most downloads happen in the late afternoon and over the weekend, suggesting the majority of users are kids who have just got out of school or bored workers stuck in their offices watching the clock."

[via The Guardian]

NZ's music bubble goes pop

Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) figures suggest mobile phones, both in ringtones and music downloads, now contribute about 16% of revenue for owners of mechanical copyrights - rights to recorded music. That's up from zero a couple of years ago.

[via Stuff]

Ringtones Not Ringing The Register

U.S. ringtone sales have steadily increased every year since 2003, but this year Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) is predicting that the ringtone market will see a decline. Their estimate is that sales for 2007 will be $550 million, down $50 million from 2006. WebPro News reports.

"According to BMI, ringtone sales for 2006 were $600 million; $500 million in 2005; $245 million in 2004; and $68 million in 2003.

For the first time, BMI has released a U.S. ringback market estimate. A ringback tone is a music piece that a caller hears when they call another mobile phone. They estimate that for 2007 ringbacks will generate $65 million in revenue."

72 million ringtones purchased in 2007 so far

So far this year, more than 72 million ringtones have been purchased by mobile phone users, according to Nielsen RingScan, which began tracking the sector last fall. [via The Olympian]

Why doesn't the RIAA talk about the $9 billion USD in ringtone sales?

Zeropaid writes "The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that worldwide music industry sales were about $20 billion in 2006, down from $21 billion in 2005.

But, what's odd, that seems strangely removed from the argument is the profits made from ringtones sales. Gartner Research research claims $9 billion in worldwide ringtone sales while the IFPI claims about $1 billion

Even if you take a leap of faith and say Gartner's claims must be false and say 50% of the figure is accurate, that's more than enough BILLIONS to cover the supposed $1 billion USD they lost last year. Furthermore, they're making cash on what is truly an inferior product to say the least."

BMI: Ringtone Revenue Will Drop in '07

Performing rights organization BMI which collects publishing royalties for songwriters, composers, and publishers, has tracked 520,000,000 ringtone sales since 2001.

During that time, ringtone sales rose, but according to the organization, 2007 will mark the first year in which U.S. ringtone revenue decreases (from $600 million in 2006 to a projected $550 million in 2007).

Wired

Bridge Report on Music Phones

According to RadioInk, there are now 23.5 million mobile subscribers in the US who own phones with integrated music players.

The number of consumers with music-enabled phones is up five times from the same period in 2005 and nearly 20 percent of the new phones purchased in Q3 2006 were music capable.

While the penetration of U.S. mobile video/TV subscribers is still small at 2.3 percent in Q3 2006, the number of mobile video/TV subscribers has doubled to 5.1 million since the beginning of the year.

Jibbs phones home with 1.4 million ringtone sales

St. Louis rapper Jibbs got a special — perhaps dubious — mention in the newest Billboard magazine. The story points out that some rap artists are making up for low CD sales with big ringtone sales and cited “Chain Hang Low” by Jibbs.

Billboard says he sold nearly 200,000 copies of the “Jibbs feat. Jibbs” CD. But he sold more than 1.4 million ringtones at $2 a pop, amounting to $2.8 million in auxiliary sales."

[via STLtoday]

People change ringtone regularly… but don’t pay for it

New research from analyst Informa Telecoms & Media indicates that UK mobile users are changing their ringtone regularly, but aren’t paying to do it.

The company surveyed 1,870 people, and found that 51% had changed ringtone in the last six months, but that in the last three months, only 13% of users had paid for a new ringtone.

Probably more and more people are downloading MP3 tunes from their computers onto their music phones, and then using them as the ringtones". I know for a fact that's what kids are doing where I live.

[Pocket-Picks via MocoNews]

Music mobiles boost Sony Ericsson

According to the BBC, strong demand for mobile phone handsets that can download music have boosted sales and profits at Sony.

"The firm sold 60 million music-enabled phones last year as overall sales rose by 23 million to 74.8 million units.

... It expects global sales of handsets to total about 980 million, considerably above the 950 million figure predicted by analysts."

Ringback tones grew in 2006

According to M:Metrics, while ringtone purchasing leveled off in the US, and actually declined in Europe, ringback tones where ringing up increased sales. eMarketer reports.

"Ringbacks grew in the US at a rate of 225% from the quarter ended January to the quarter ended November.

During the same period, ringback subscriptions also grew across Europe: 150% in Germany and 146% in the UK. Between July and November, ringbacks grew 12.8% in France and 11% in Spain. "

Digital Music Sales To More Than Double In Five Years

Amid a continued decline in sales of compact discs, U.S. digital music sales will climb to about $2.5 billion annually by 2011, more than doubling from about $1 billion in 2006, JupiterResearch said Monday in an industry forecast. Forbes reports.

"By 2011, digital sales will account for about 22% of total U.S. music sales, compared to just 6% in 2005. JupiterResearch’s digital sales figures don’t include revenue from cellphone ringtones, which the firm expects will represent an eye-popping 12% of overall music sales in 2011."

Nokia says sold almost 40 million multimedia phones in 2006

Nokia said on Monday it had sold close to 40 million multimedia phones in 2006 and nearly 70 million music phones. Reuters reports.

"It said the total multimedia phone market was 90 million units in 2006, and is expected to grow to 250 million units in 2008."

Ringtones/Mastertones Could Mean Millions for Artists and Labels

According to reports
Informa Telecoms and Media are projecting a $6.8 billion mastertone business by 2010, which could possibly mean happier labels gaining more profits. MemphisRap.com reports.

"Currently, Justin Timberlake is one the top mastertones (also known as ringtones, true tones, realtones, or ringtunes) for 2006 ranking in at number 2 for Sexyback selling more than 1,130,000 and number 6 for My Love with over 780,000 sold.

It's stated that BMI, known for collecting royalties for members of their organization that are songwriters, composers and music publishers like ASCAP is projecting revenues to surpass $600 million in 2006 for U.S ringtones which is $100 million more than last year.

London based ARC Group reports have been noted as stating that in the past year sales have grew more than 40% and have accounted for more than 10% of the music market ($3.5 billion) globally. The group is forecasting a growth in sales to exceed $5.2 billion which will carry on into 2008."

Music companies make up for lower CD sales with singles and ringtones

Sales of individual song downloads are eroding the underpinnings of the CD and remixing the industry's economics, reports the IHT, in an interesting and lengthy article on the music industry's new business model.

Some interesting facts and figures:

-- Album sales are down 4.6 percent this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. Sales at digital-music services like iTunes continue to rise, but the pace of the increase has slowed compared with last year. Still, if every 10 individual tracks sold online are counted as albums, overall recorded music sales are off only by about 0.7 percent this year."

-- More and more, it is looking toward sales of bite-size units — individual songs typically sell for 99 cents — instead of full albums that may sell for $15 at record shops.

-- Barring a late surge in CD sales, more digital tracks than CDs will be sold in the United States for the first time this year.

Net and Mobile music downloads in Japan

Legal downloads of music in Japan continued to grow in the third quarter of the year although that growth appears to be slowing, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of Japan via Infoworld.

"The total number of downloads was 91.9 million during the July to September quarter, according to figures published by the RIAJ on Tuesday.

Music obtained by cell phone, which includes full tracks, ringtones and ringback tones, still dominates the Japanese market and accounted for the vast majority of downloads.

For the first time the RIAJ broke down the Internet download figures by type of download. Of the 5.7 million downloads in the third quarter about 5.4 million downloads were of singles. There were 260,000 downloads of albums and 86,000 downloads of other paid content, which was mainly music videos.

By value, Internet downloads were worth a total of ¥1.2 billion (US$10.3 million) during the quarter while those downloaded through mobile platforms were worth about 10 times as much at ¥12.4 billion."

Ring-tone complaints cost millions in China

What PC? reports that "the latest financial data from companies offering ring-tone downloads, text information and other mobile services in China reveal sharp falls in revenue as new policies designed to protect consumers take effect.

"Some service providers have lost more than a quarter of their anticipated revenue, totalling tens of millions of dollars, after the introduction of the new rules - under which customers were first required to opt-in to continue receiving services to which they were already subscribed. "

The changes were prompted by customer complaints and new government regulations.

Thousands of customers had complained that they were being billed for services and downloads to which they had not agreed, or were unable to cancel services from the so-called wireless value-added services providers."

USA: 21 % have downloaded a ringtone

About 21 percent of U.S. subscribers have downloaded a ringtone (although only about 10% can be considered "active" downloaders), while about 9% have downloaded a mobile game, according to research from NPD Group, reports Reuters.

Women and Rap Rule Ringtone Market

Market research firm NPD Group finds that rap and hip-hop dominate mobile phone ringtone sales, and that, in July anyway, women and girls downloaded the most. [via Digital Trends]

"What exactly appeals to consumers as ringtones? According to market research firm The NPD Group rap and hip-hop ringtones account for 23 percent of ringtone downloads among more than 75,000 survy respondents. Next up: rock (17 percent), R&B (11 percent) and pop (11 percent), and alternative (8 percent).

... When asked for their reasons for buying a particular ringtone, music preferences rule: 89 percent of ringtone buyers said they downloaded a ringtone because they liked a particular song, and 62 percent cited they liked the artist. Only 24 percent said price was a factor in their purchase, and only 7 percent said they bought a ringtone because of a recommendation from a friend or family member".