Five Percent Of Americans Sideload Music, Two Percent Download OTA: Report

A new report by JupiterResearch is being quoted around the place as indicating that people don’t want music capabilities in their mobile phones. “Only about 5 percent of US consumers transfer music from PCs to their phones, and only 2 percent download songs over the air, according to JupiterResearch’s “Mobile Music: Target Impulse Purchases and Purchasers for Over-the-Air Downloads” report…So although nearly 28 million US consumers will have music phones by the end of 2007, few will use them very much for music” reports eMarketer, and the post matches the release from Jupiter. The problem with the figures is that 29 million music phones represents about 10-15 percent of mobile phone users in the US, so “5 percent” represents between a third and a half of all those with music-capable phones using the service, which puts a very positive spin on the figures. JupiterResearch has yet to respond to an e-mail requesting clarification, but I think the way I’ve read it is correct, considering this M:Metrics report a few months ago which put the percentage of US subscribers listening to sideloaded music at 2.9 percent and the penetration of musicphones at 17 percent. So these JupiterResearch figures are actually more positive, showing growth…