Music Could Beat Mobile Game Sales

A recent study by In-Stat suggests that mobile music services could garner more interest among U.S. mobile customers than mobile games.

While the study suggests a definite trend, the mobile music industry is still in its infancy and the eco-system as In-Stat explains, needs to mature so that pricing models, Digital Rights Management(DRM) and revenue sharing is worked out.   "The window to catch a group of wireless users we call ‘Mobile Music Intenders’ — those interested in mobile music services — may be closingsoon," said David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. "They’re ready to buy new handsets and they’re willing to pay extra for handsets that play music. Without available music services orhandsets, carriers may miss this opportunity to grab what could end up being a very lucrative mobile music market." A recent report by In-Stat found the following: — Music Intenders are willingto pay extra for their mobile phones. More than one-fourth spent more than $150 for their current handset; more than two-thirds expect to buy new phones before the end of 2005. — Overall, 34% ofwireless subscribers surveyed are "somewhat," "very" or "extremely" interested in mobile music services. — Survey respondents who could be classified as "MP3Intenders" have a distinct demographic profile when compared with the general population. They are younger, male, prefer Sprint PCS and T-Mobile, and spend more on their handsets. Motorola andApple recently announced their new Motorola ROKR phone which is capable of downloading 100 songs to the mobile using Apple’s iTunessoftware. While the idea is sound, industry response to the phone has been all but promising. Our take: As long as the mobile musicecosystem is worked out, expect mobile music sales to overlap mobile gaming in a short amount of time. Music simply has a broader audience than video games. Also in related news, Cingular announced last Thursday they would be rolling out a music download service for mobile phone users in 2006.