Mobile music landscape a mixed bag

By A Bisht

The mobile music has proved to be a mixed bag from the biz point of view. The negative news is mobile music has failed to live up to the expectations after the early success inspired by ringtones.
The Good news is there, taking cues from the successful, like Apple, Verizon, the mobile industry is gearing up to set things right.

Some numbers:


 According to according to Nielsen RingScan, Combined ringtone and ringback tone sales have fallen almost 23 percent so far in 2009.

 According to a Forrester Research analyst, only one-third of U.S. mobile subscribers with music-capable phones use their devices to listen to music. When this is compared to the iPhone users. Almost 60 percent of them are listening to music on their phones.

Although the silver lining in the cloud is, mobile music usage, which is still low overall -- doubled during the past year. Innovative applications like Pandora and Slacker, are contributing to the increase. --------