M:Metrics Reports Growth In Mobile Music Adoption

With massive growth in musicphones, as many as 20 percent of mobile subscribers are listening to music on their mobile devices

SEATTLE, Wash January 15, 2008 — The rise in musicphones has spurred adoption of mobile music consumption across the United States and Western Europe, reports M:Metrics, the mobile media authority. The firm reports that sideloading accounts for 83 percent of mobile music usage across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Among other methods, sharing music outpaces full-track mobile downloading in the majority of these markets.

With the exceptions of Spain and the United States, more mobile music consumers listened to music that was shared (for example, between phones via Bluetooth), than was downloaded directly to the phone using a music service. France and the UK posted the highest frequency of this activity, accounting for 12.5 percent of those who listened to mobile music in the month. At the other end of the spectrum was Spain, with only 7.1 percent of mobile music users transferring music between devices.

“Mobile music is quickly catching on, and the fact that consumers are sharing music demonstrates its potential as a social, viral phenomenon centered on mobile handsets,” said Jen Wu, analyst, M:Metrics. “The proliferation of musicphones is causing a shift in digital music toward the mobile platform, which opens numerous opportunities for music-related content, services, hardware and accessories built to accommodate or enhance these mobile music activities.”

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.

Musicphone penetration has grown considerably in the United States and Western Europe, at an aggregated rate of 50.7 percent growth from November 2006 to November 2007 across the six geographies. The United States is the fastest-growing market, with 63.6 percent growth, from 23.2 million subscribers owning musicphones in November 2006 to 63.8 million one year later. Musicphones include all mobile handsets that are, at a minimum, capable of digital music playback (AAC, MP3, MPEG-2 AAC, MPEG-4 AAC+ or WMA codecs) and storage (greater than 47MB or support for memory expansion) or are a smartphone.

M:Metrics applies trusted media measurement methodologies to assess the audience for mobile content and applications. As the world’s most authoritative mobile media measurement firm, M:Metrics delivers the most accurate mobile market metrics through the world’s largest monthly survey of mobile subscribers as well as automated data collection methodologies. Below are the findings of its November Benchmark Survey.

About M:Metrics
M:Metrics is the mobile media authority. As the only research firm to measure the audience for mobile media, M:Metrics provides the most accurate metrics on actual mobile content consumption by applying trusted media measurement methodologies to the mobile market. M:Metrics’ monthly syndicated data service gives clients the critical insights and intelligence required to inform smart business strategies and the competitive benchmarks needed to evaluate the performance of competitors and partners. M:Metrics is a private, venture-funded corporation headquartered in Seattle, with offices in San Francisco and London.

About M:Metrics Data
Based on continually refreshed samples of nationally representative mobile phone consumers, M:Metrics reports summarise market size, device reach, and key demographic and mobile phone usage characteristics. The data presented here is drawn from an extensive survey questionnaire that collects specific device model and carrier subscription information from each month’s sample of mobile phone subscribers, and also drills down into specific details related to current and past usage of various mobile phone applications and content. Data collected from each sample are statistically balanced and projected to the total national population of mobile phone subscribers.

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