Music And The Cell Phone

The music industry places its hopes on two things; subscription music (which I've posted about a lot), and listening to music on the cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone now, with 234 million people using them in US alone (as of July), and that's users older than 13. It's assumed that a lot of music is being consumed on cell phones, but they're just not being used for that application as much as everyone thinks.

Here's a breakdown of activities on the cell phone (both smart and not-so-smartphones), according to a comScore study of users ages 13 and older during May and July.

66% sent a text message to another phone
33.6% used a mobile browser
31.4% used downloaded apps
22.3% played games
21.8% accessed a social networking site or blog

Only 14.5% listened to music on their mobile phone.

This will obviously grow in the coming years, but it may never be as large as the music industry hopes it will be.

One thing that everyone always forgets about cell phones (and smart phones in particular) is that it's a communication device first. People want to make calls and exchange texts first and foremost. Everything else is a happy addition.

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