Americans reticent on mobile music, study finds

Carriers are falling flat in their efforts to become a kind of wireless iTunes, according to new figures from M:Metrics.
Less than 1 percent of all U.S. mobile users downloaded songs from a carrier’s digital music store, the market research firm reported, while 2.9 percent listened to side-loaded tunes. Consumers in Germany and France were even less likely to download songs from operator-branded services, although such offerings appear to be gaining ground in the United Kingdom and Spain, where more than 2 percent of subscribers reported using such services.
Side-loading is becoming increasingly popular in some European markets, as well. More than 12 percent of U.K. users said they’ve listened to songs on their phones that were transferred from a computer, and 10 percent of Italian users said they listened to side-loaded music.
“There has been consumer experimentation with over-the-air, full-track downloads, but downloading music from carrier music stores has yet to make a significant impact,” said analyst Jen Wu. “The two main barriers to greater adoption of over-the-air music services-accessibility and value-are lesser issues with side-loaded music. The prevalence of side-loading, largely shaped by current usage and understanding of digital music players, shows that the perceived value in music phones is still in the ability to make one’s personal music collection portable, as opposed to a new acquisition point for music.”
Unsurprisingly, the study also indicated that music-friendly handsets are a primary driver for mobile music. And such devices are increasingly being chosen over standalone digital music players: 31 percent of music lovers in the United States who own both a music phone and a digital music player selected the phone as their primary music device, while 11 percent use both equally.