Report: $4.4 Billion Mobile Music Revenue Expected By 2012

Screen Digest has reportedly released a study called “Mobile Music, The End Of The Beginning: Market Assessment And Forecasts” that estimates the revenue from mobile phone music related business streams all across the globe will be almost $4.4 billion by the end of 2012, which is a hundred percent more than what it was by end 2007.

The report says that the Full Track Audio and Video Services (FTAVS) market will increase to 46 percent in 2012 as compared with 29 percent in 2007 and revenues may touch $1.2 billion with USA and Japan continuing to be the most significant markets. It cautions, however, that profitability may be diluted by the high wholesale price of music, and the highest consumer segment - young people between the age of 16 and 30 - relying heavily on music piracy.

The study reviewed Nokia's Comes With Music that allows unlimited FTAVS download by buying select handsets and reasoned that Nokia will still find it difficult to compete with Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow Plus and Apple’s iTunes that leverage music only as an add-on to enhance the sale of any mobile and not as a profit-making scheme.

Screen Digest’s report says that online audio and video music content is an important contributing factor for mobile handset selection. It allegedly predicts that the trend will continue till 2012 with customers demanding mobiles that are compatible, can quickly download and are suitably enabled to handle media rich content. Markets in Western Europe and North America currently account for only 20 percent of this market and the future could remain unchanged.

The report claims that the mobile music market was launched in 1998 with the introduction of musical ringtones and personalization services, which were an instant hit, and that these will still remain the highest revenue stream in 2012 at $2.2 billion. This popularity is mostly reinforced by TMC’s  report a month earlier of a study by Informa Telecoms and Media that says more than thirty-three percent of mobile transactions during 2008 accounted for purchasing ringtones and music.