Music-enabled phones spurring mobile music usage in U.S., W. Europe

The growing availability of cellphones that support music is spurring increasing mobile music consumption in the United States and Western Europe, according to a new report from M:Metrics.
The company said sideloading of music accounts for 83% of mobile music usage in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Sharing music outpaces full-track downloading in most of those markets, said M:Metrics. And more mobile music consumers listen to shared music than downloaded music in markets other than Spain and the United States, said the report.
“Mobile music is quickly catching on, and the fact that consumers are sharing music demonstrates its potential as a social, viral phenomenon centered on mobile handsets,” said Jen Wu, analyst at M:Metrics. “The proliferation of music phones is causing a shift in digital music toward the mobile platform, which opens numerous opportunities for music-related content, services, hardware and accessories built to accommodate or enhance these mobile music activities.”