04/10/2008, 3:30pm, EDT
Thursday, April 10thStudy: 66% have no interest in mobile music
A combination of disinterest and unnecessary hurdles is discouraging most cellphone users from using mobile music downloads, says a new Jupiter Research study (pay only). Although many Western carriers heavily promote their direct-to-phone services, approximately two thirds (66 percent) of the more than 1,800 respondents to the study say that nothing is likely to spur them into paying for music on a phone; 28 percent are interested in ringtones, while only 14 percent are interested in full tracks, according to the results.
Most users cite the price of downloads as the primary barrier and are looking for songs available for near the same 99-cent price as with music stores accessed from home, Jupiter says. With the exception of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and Sprint's Music Store, most cellular providers and phone store operators often charge a significant premium for wireless downloads, often claiming the need to offset the extra network bandwidth costs. This insistence is effectively driving customers to more traditional stores where they can either sideload music to the phone afterwards or else are confined to dedicated portable media players.
"Absent some exciting new business models, music labels and carriers will continue to cede most of the digital-music turf to Apple," Jupiter says.
Besides cost, phone users often consider the accessibility of music the next most pressing issue, with the ability to find the music they like and download it often frustrating those polled by Jupiter. Some also complain of copyright restrictions on downloaded tracks, many of which can't be copied away from the phone or only to a limited number of PCs.
The frequent use of iPods and other portable players, as well as the storage limits on most existing phones, are also listed as primary obstacles to those willing to consider over-the-air music purchases.
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yeah right, more like some music industry suit demanded a higher rate. And as a consequence, few people want to buy it.
Of course, if you work for Universal/NBC, you would blame Jobs for setting the price so low that it's undermining your business model based upon highway robbery.
Ah, everyone's blaming Apple.....guess the days of fat entertainment industry execs are over. One CAN hope!
1. Too expensive;
2. Too difficult to find and buy;
If neither 1 nor 2 exist, they in fact WILL buy their music on their iPhone, and often. IPhone owners have confirmed this very quickly after iTunes Store came directly to the iPhone. What they like is the same process of buying as on a computer, with the same restrictions, and the automatic copying of purchased songs to their iTunes libraries on their computer. For years, iPod owners were carrying two devices. Today, they can carry only one. Today, they don't need to buy on the computer and 'sideload' to their phone.
The study confirms that Apple got it right, and others still don't get it.
And I really, really do not care about buying music from my phone. The desktop + synching is good enough. But as long as it doesn't get in the way, I don't mind having the wifi store on my phone.
Doofuses.
No, it's not the music industry. Its the cell industry (you know, the ones who really charge you an arm and a leg for any little item.
And it is amazing how they can offer 'unlimited' data plans, but still need to charge so much extra for that bandwidth (because we know how much it costs for a 4MB download - oh, right, at .01 cents a K, that's about $4. Man, I take it back. They're losing on every sale. Wow!