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Mobile music: All grown up now
Take that, iTunes! In your face, Napster!

By Jo Best

Published: Friday 04 August 2006

The mobile industry can at last pat itself on the back - mobile music is just about to mature.

According to Juniper Research, the market for cellular tunes is getting ready for a bit of a shake up. Currently, it's all about ringtones, the £2.99-a-pop scourge of pocket money. Not for much longer, say the analysts.

In the coming years, the market will shift to full track downloads - entire songs piped to handsets over cellular networks, rather than transferred to phones from PCs. By 2011, Juniper says, mobile downloads will make up 32 per cent of mobile music.

Such enthusiasm will be lining operators' pockets considerably, with consumers spending a total of $14bn on mobile music by 2011. Europe will make up 27 per cent of that revenue but Asia Pacific will lead the way, generating more than 40 per cent.

It seems mobile music could even be delivering a dry slap to online music stores such as iTunes and Napster. A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast that by 2010 consumers will be shelling out more than $4.9bn on digital music.

The report predicts worldwide music - including digital and mobile - will generate $48bn by the end of the decade.