Mobile will play key role in digital music explosion

Rating: Mobile music revenues to grow by 39% in USA

According to Strategy Analytics‘ latest Global Recorded Music Forecast, mobile music revenues are going to grow dramatically in 2012. Globally, the market watcher expects mobile revues to grow by about 23 per cent. Some markets – such as the USA with 39 per cent growth in mobile music sales, will be ahead of the curve. The UK seems to be slightly behind with 15 per cent which is better than the EU which will only experience 7 per cent.These figures reinforce Strategy Analytics’ claims that spending on digital music could well outstrip physical by 2015. Omnifone believes that streaming will play a key part in mobile music’s growth with the research predicting that streaming revenues are set to rise by 40 per cent globally.“These latest figures on streaming music revenues reflect the strength of the digital music industry today,” observed Jeff Hughes, CEO with Omnifone.

He added, “We are seeing an explosion in global streaming subscription figures as the availability of connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and high speed connectivity becomes commonplace.”

Having been crushed by piracy and a period of major readjustment, the industry has evolved and is starting to replace lost revenue through streaming and download-to-own services.

Rights holders, publishing collective societies and device manufacturers have significantly improved the monetisation of digital music services.

Streaming music revenues should continue to grow and Omnifone expects to see the ownership of access to all music overtake the desire to own individual songs or collections.

“Consumers now expect to access music wherever they are from any device,” Jeff Hughes claimed.

“We believe this is just the start of the curve of explosive growth which will be further fuelled by the continued proliferation of connected devices and the introduction of next generation technologies such as 4G.”

As Hughes observes, the penny has finally dropped that digital is critical to the long term success of the entire music eco-system.

Full details of the Global Recorded Music Forecast from Strategy Analytics can be found here.