According to a release from ComScore 54m mobile users in the five biggest markets in Europe are listening to music on their mobiles, but only 4.3m of them are downloading.
The ComScore stats for five key European countries: the UK, Spain, France, Germany and Italy reveal that 23.8% of mobile users across those markets are listening to music on their phones: 54 million people. That’s up 10% year-on-year.
Spain led the way with 30% of mobile users listening to music from their primary handsets followed by Germany with 25.8%. Unbelievably the UK actually falls slightly behind the average with 22.6% penetration of mobile users. Listening to music on mobile phones was least popular in France and Italy, with 21% of both markets engaged in this activity. Although if you’ve heard any of the tracks in the Italian and French charts then you’d probably understand why. The US, in contrast, lags far behind all the countries in the survey with only 13.2% of the mobile population using mobile handsets to listen to music. Would that be because 90% of US music seems to be country and western.
| Mobile Music Users 3 Month Average Ending March 2010 Total US + EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
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| Penetration (%) of Mobile Subscribers | |||||||
| EU5 | France | Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | US | |
| Listen to Music | 23.8% | 21.1% | 25.8% | 21.1% | 30.0% | 22.6% | 13.2% |
| Listen to Music Sideloaded From PC | 20.3% | 17.6% | 22.2% | 17.8% | 26.0% | 19.4% | 9.7% |
| Purchased a Ringtone | 3.7% | 3.4% | 3.8% | 5.3% | 4.0% | 2.2% | 5.5% |
| Downloaded Music Direct to Mobile Device | 1.9% | 1.9% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 1.6% | 2.1% | 1.7% |
Germany led all of the countries in downloading music directly to mobile handsets with more than 1 million mobile music downloaders in March 2010, while also demonstrating the fastest growth rate at 102%. Italy ranked as the second fastest growing market (up 92%) followed by France (up 50%). Once again, growth in Europe significantly outpaced the U.S., which grew just 10% to 4 million users.
| Downloaded Music Direct to Mobile Phone 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2009 Total US + EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens |
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| Mobile Subscribers Who Downloaded Music Direct to Mobile Phone (000) | |||
| Mar-2009 | Mar-2010 | % Change | |
| EU5 | 2,647 | 4,286 | 62% |
| Germany | 517 | 1,042 | 102% |
| Italy | 421 | 807 | 92% |
| France | 582 | 874 | 50% |
| U.K. | 716 | 995 | 39% |
| Spain | 411 | 568 | 38% |
| U.S. | 3,701 | 4,077 | 10% |
“Despite rapid growth in mobile music downloaders in Europe, the total addressable market in Europe is still quite small. However we see a significant untapped advertising opportunity for music publishers and promoters. People who listen to music on their phones are more likely to browse the Internet and almost half own smartphones,” says Alistair Hill, senior analyst at comScore. “The high penetration of smartphones and likelihood to browse shows how ideal this audience is for targeted mobile advertising. The mobile channel offers an opportunity to get in front of consumers at one of their primary access points for music consumption.”
Other notable findings about Europe’s mobile music market from March 2010 include:
Of the 54 million users listening to music on a mobile device in the EU5:
- 42 percent have a smartphone compared to 25 percent of the total mobile subscribers
- 47 percent browse the mobile internet compared to 25 percent of the total mobile subscribers
- 85 percent of those who listened to music on their phone, listen to ‘sideloaded’ music (loaded from a PC)
- 8 percent of those who listened to music on their phone, have downloaded it direct to their device
The figures for the UK are low, but perhaps that’s because there are many devices that have FM radio and the growth of services like Spotify and the ease of which you can now stream music like the BBC on mobile.