50% of US Mac Users Paid to Download Music v 16% of PC Users

The NPD Group released data that says consumers who own Macs are much more likely than PC users to pay to download music. NPD quarterly releases its Digital Music Monitor, and in the third quarter of 2007, it said that around half of all Mac users have paid to download music from iTunes and other similar sites, but only 16% of PC owners have done so. Mac users were also more likely to purchase CDs, with a little over 32% of Mac and about 28% of PC users reporting buying CDs in Q3.

A thing to keep in mind about these results, however, is that Mac users make up less than 10% of the total PC market, so it takes a tremendous amount more PC users to hit that 50% mark than it does Mac users.

“There’s still a cultural divide between Apple consumers and the rest of the computing world, and that’s especially apparent when it comes to the way they interact with music,” said Russ Crupnick, VP and entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “Mac users are not only more active in digital music, they are also more likely to buy CDs, which helps debunk the myth that digital music consumers stop buying music in CD format.”

NPD’s data shows that the unit-volume sales shares for Macs increased from under 6% in 2006 to almost 9% for this year, January to October.

Around 56% of Mac users listen to music on their computers, while about 31% of PC users do. Mac users were also proportionally more likely watch videos on mobiles and their computers.

“The more consumers become comfortable paying for digital music, the more chance they will evangelize to others. And at this point in the game, it’s the growing base of Apple consumers that are the industry’s low-hanging fruit when it comes to converting from physical to digital music,” said Crupnick.

Helio Devices Cooperate with PCs through Helio Player

This week Helio released its Helio Player, a PC application that lets users manage their music, video and picture collections on their PC and transfer them to and from Helio devices through a USB connection. This comes with no additional charge to Helio subscribers, and is an extension of Helio Music.

“Helio Player is designed to make it easier than ever to use Helio’s premium devices as portable multimedia players,” said Rob Gelick, VP of media and community services at the MVNO. “The intuitive design, inclusion of the Helio Music Store and ability to manage a personal library of music, videos and photos gives members new options for enjoying their entertainment on the go and sharing their favorites with all their friends.”

Helio Player was developed through a partnership with RealNetworks, and it is the first PC application from a US carrier that involves importing and managing data from a mobile. The application also allows users to buy the tracks from the Helio Music Store either via the PC or mobile and then transfer them to the other device. One interesting feature from the Music Store is the Gift/Beg option, where users can buy songs for friends or ask for music from other members.

The Helio Player is free and compatible with Windows XP and Vista and the Helio devices Ocean, Fin, Drift and Heat. Songs bought on the PC are generally 99 cents, while songs bought through the mobile run about $1.99.

Latin Music Spices Up Digital Marketplace

Latin music labels and artists were, for the first time, a substantial chunk of the digital marketplace in 2007. By December 10, sales of digital Latin albums were about 477,000 units, or 1.6% of all Latin albums sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Overall, 10.4% of album sales are digital, but the number is a big improvement over the 293,000 digital Latin albums sold in 2006.

A large amount of this growth can be attributed to iTunes Latino, which was unveiled this November. Though it is relatively new, iTunes Latino has already solidified itself as the destination for its huge, well-versed library. YouTube has also seen a surge in the number of videos by Latin acts, and ringtones have also proven to be a growing source of revenue for Latin labels.

Billboard has identified five major digital events that have increased business this year and will likely carry an impact far into 2008:

– MySpace this year launched MySpace Mexico, MySpace Latino and MySpace Latin America. MySpace Latino is a Spanish Web site geared towards the US marketplace. Since the launching of these sites, MySpace’s unique Latin America visitors have jumped up greatly to 4.3 million and those in Mexico have also greatly increased to 1.5 million. Using the bilingual US group B-Side Players, MySpace Latino sponsored its first tour this year.

– Zune launched its first custom device this year, doing so with the duo Wisin & Yandel, and signifying the importance it places on the Latin music community. Wisin & Yandel had the second highest debut Latin album this year with their “Los Extraterrestres.” The “W & Y” Zune is a limited edition model, sold exclusively by Wal-Mart. The multimedia campaign that accompanied this release was gigantic and extremely well targeted. Zune promises a continually growing pact with Latin music in the new year, and hopes to include music promotions and deals with MSN and others.

– The influx of preloaded music through label deals with mobiles seems to be playing a large part. These deals are with both carriers and the mobile manufacturers. In Latin America, this practice is the status quo, especially once an artist is established, such as Ricky Martin, Juanes and Mana. Sony Ericsson will be debuting new Walkman phones in Latin America by the end of the year, and they will be including new artists from the Sony/ATV Music Publishing roster.

– Univision, the dominant label group in “regional Mexican,” made its library available as mastertone (real-music) ringtones this year, marking one of the largest movements of a Latin genre to the mobile market. Alacranes Musical’s “Por Tu Amor” has already sold about 39,000 mastertones since becoming available in May, and similar results are slowly coming in.

– Juanes sold about six million digital tracks in the week before the release of “La Vida Es … Un Ratico,” according to the Universal Music Latino label. This includes albums, singles, individual tracks, ringtones and preloaded music sales, including the 500,000 in Latin America. The album sold 8,000 digital copies in its first week in the US, thanks to a big push by Sprint, iTunes Latino, and Univision.

Mobile To Near 30% of Music Retail by 2011

Mobile music is rising steadily these days. Currently it counts for around 13% of worldwide recorded music retail sales, and it is expected to shoot up to almost 30% by 2011 according to a new industry report by Understanding & Solutions. This could amount to as much as $11 billion, which should help to offset a decline in packaged music sales.

“Alongside online, mobile music is essential to the future of the music industry,” said Understanding & Solutions consultant David Sidebottom. “Japan, closely followed by the USA, has the most efficient mobile music landscape: both countries have a concentrated operator base and a large pool of potential subscribers, providing economies of scale for the music companies.”

According to Sidebottom, “In the fragmented European market, some operators have become less aggressive, as they can’t make money directly from selling full track downloads, but this will pave the way for ‘off-portal’ and third-party service providers.”

Nearly all new handsets come with a music function built-in, and recent improvements from manufacturers and operators have improved the experience and ease with which users can search for and purchase mobile music.

When it comes to emerging markets, it is the hope that mobile downloads will be able to control markets where piracy overwhelms packaged sales. Sidebottom said that both China and India are showing “large revenue gains” driven by subscription growths and “music-related personalized mobile products.”

The market might not be as big as some hope, though. According to the Digital Media in Asia Project at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, “the price Chinese consumers are willing to pay for per-song downloads is something far lower than the 99 cents” most sites charge. The project says the small consumer base and the rampant piracy threaten “the future of any for-profit online (or mobile phone-based) music retail business model.”

Napster Launches New Mobile Music Channels through NTT DoCoMo

Napster enlarged its partnership with NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading wireless carrier, to provide the music content for a new mobile music feature available to NTT DoCoMo customers. NTT DoCoMo offers customers a Music & Video Channel that provides access to video and music programs. Starting on December 1, these customers now have the chance to subscribe to a Napster-Tower Records music channel. This channel will showcase two weekly programs, each with between eight and 10 complete tracks that users may listen to up to three times a week.

Napster Japan launched the first mobile music subscription service in Japan last November on DoCoMo’s iMode platform. In July of this year, NTT DoCoMo launched Napster’s unlimited over-the-air (OTA) music subscription service and made it available across the complete line of DoCoMo 904i handsets.

Napster HITS is a weekly showcase of the latest releases and most popular songs. Tower Records Must-Hear Recommendations is a program geared towards genre playlists and older hits. Each channel comes complete with links to Napster Mobile, Napster’s ringtone store and its full-track à la carte download store. “This new offering allows music lovers a new way to enjoy Napster,” said Napster president Brad Duea. “We are proud to offer NTT DoCoMo customers the best way to discover and access the latest hits and popular tracks through their mobile phones outside of Napster’s mobile subscription service.”

Twenty-two of NTT DoCoMo’s handset models can access these new programs. The Napster-Tower Records channel and the Music & Video Channel service each cost 315 yen ($2.90) per month.

Napster is slowly cornering the global market when it comes to mobile music providers. Just last month, the Napster Mobile service began allowing AT&T wireless customers to search, preview, purchase and download over five million songs. Customers can download five tracks a month with the Napster Mobile Five-Track Pack option for a discounted price of $7.49 ($1.50 per song) or purchase songs à la carte for $1.99 each. AT&T teamed with Napster To Go earlier in March to give its mobile, home phone and triple-play subscribers free access to the Napster music library for a year.

Napster CEO Chris Gorog previously made a statement that mobile phones are the way forward for the company, and it seems like since it first teamed up with SunCom Wireless back in 2006, it never looked back.

Live365 Internet Radio Now Available for Mobile Devices

Internet radio network Live365 is now accessible via mobile devices with the Windows Mobile 5 and 6 operating system. The mobile service offers broadcasts from 150 countries based on 250 categories.

After downloading, listeners can choose to check out a 15-day, no credit card required, Live365 VIP subscription trial and purchase the VIP subscription for $5.95 per month after the trial’s expiration. Live365 Mobile features album artwork, unlimited presets, one-click e-mailing for track info and purchasing, a large font selection, keypad presets, themes, recommendations and automatic mute on incoming calls.

SingMee.com Lets Users Listen to Music from Any Device

Computer telephony company Talking Technologies has released SingMee.com for music lovers who want to listen to music without regard for the listening device.

SingMee works by dialing into one of a number of local access numbers in a certain country, enabling users to listen to any one of thousands of radio stations internationally. Users can also upload their favorite songs to their SingMee inbox and listen to their songs by dialing an access number and the song’s extension.

A key component of SingMee is the Send A Song feature. Send A Song lets users send song messages to anyone through the phone, e-mail or SMS messaging. Messages can be converted into other languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. The recipient of the song message can also stop, play, rewind, pause, forward and reply to the sender of their message.

An upcoming feature of SingMee called MailByPhone is currently being developed. Once deployed, the service will notify users via messaging or telephone whenever they have received e-mail – and read the e-mail to the user. Users can choose between 12 languages in which to receive their e-mail notifications and can even insert a signature, open an attachment dialog, and get a contact’s phone or fax number with just one voice command.