3 accounts for 20 percent of UK digital music sales

The IFPI (who seem to be the international version of the RIAA) have just released a report giving a rundown of the state of digital music by market. You can download the full report for free here: www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/digital-music-repo...

There were some interesting snippets about UK mobile operator 3 (or should that be Three, I never remember) in the IFPI report. They are apparently a huge music retailer, behind only iTunes! I knew 3 offered music as one among many of their mobile content options, but hadn’t realised it was quite so big.

Apparently the peak time for buying music on 3 s 10pm, is this perhaps when people are travelling home after a (midweek) night out? Or when they’re a bit drunk and out somewhere and hear a song they like and buy on impulse? Also, apparently many people buy while on public transport. This makes sense - people often listen to music when travelling, so if they see something that makes them think of a song, it’s logical they’d get it right away. Imagine how much more they’d sell if there was mobile reception in the tube!

[By the way, if you’ve got a UK mobile phone and regularly travel to and from Australia/HongKong/Italy (and a few other countries in which 3 operate), you may want to consider switching to 3. They announced yesterday that they’re scrapping international mobile roaming charges when you’re on any of their networks. This means effectively that, provided I’ve enough minutes left in my call plan, I can be in Australia & make a call back to the UK on my 3 mobile AND NOT PAY ANYTHING FOR IT. I got seriously burnt by T-Mobile on roaming charges the last time I was in Australia, to the extent that I switched networks when I got back. Thankfully it was 3 I switched to so no need to change again (their great X-series package convinced me)… but the international roaming has now convinced my husband to switch his phone too.

Image screengrabbed from the 3 website. www.three.co.uk