Report: U.K. Leads Mobile Music Penetration; U.S. Leads in Ringtones

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 12, 2006 - 6:32pm.

Seattle - The U.K. has the largest percentage of consumers who use their mobile phones as a music device, while the U.S. trailed Spain and Germany, according to a report on mobile music in the U.S. and Europe from market research firm M:Metrics. Three percent of U.K. mobile subscribers used their phone as a music player during the month of July, compared with 2.8% in Spain, 1.4% in Germany and 0.7% in the U.S. "A significant barrier to mobile music consumption is the dearth of devices that support the activity," said M:Metrics senior analyst Seamus McAteer. "We are, however, seeing an influx of music-friendly devices on the market, with removable storage and better interfaces for accessing songs, as well as consumer education by the operators, all of which will foster growth in the sector." M:Metrics also calculated ringtone consumption data, which found the U.S. leading with 10.4% of subscribers having purchased a ringtone in July, followed by Spain (8.9%), Germany (6.6%) and the U.K. (5.4%). Spain is leading ringback tone adoption, with 9.7% having paid for one in July, compared with 3.7% of Americans.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=162105
http://www.mmetrics.com