due to an apparent lack of sources that summarize the various digital music forms into a digestible format and are standardized in terms of retail spend, a few years ago Soundbuzz took it upon themselves to compile such data. Soundbuzz now provide annual analysis, based on data sourced from a variety of data points and reflecting consumer spends at retail level. Most recent findings reflect retail spends on music – both digital and physical – for the year ending December 2007 and projected till 2010. “As is evident from the numbers, the digital music spend in the Asia-Pacific is strongly fuelled by mobile music and continues to outpace online music by a massive margin (very different from the US and Europe),” explains Sarronwala. “Consumer spend on digital music, essentially mobile music, in the Asia-Pacific continues to outstrip the spend on physical music at an aggregate level due to strong digital showings from markets such as South Korea, Japan, China and India. In Korea, China and India, the mobile music spend is more than that on physical music.” Asia-Pacific’s share of the global music market grew substantially due to strong growth of digital music (especially mobile music) in the region. Consumers in Asia already buy more digital than physical music and will make two digital purchases for every physical one by 2010. Digital music outsold physical music in Asia-Pacific in 2007, totalling more than US$6 billion in sales and projected to rise to almost US$10 billion by 2010. And in the face of declining physical music sales worldwide, digital music is the only sector of the industry experiencing growth in consumer spending. In Asia-Pacific, the growth is fuelled by mobile music purchases, which will comprise 65 percent of all music purchased in the region within two years. “The two most important things to note are that in Asia Pacific, digital music is all about mobile – not online like elsewhere in the world,” says Sarronwala, “and that by 2010, Asia Pacific will account for 60 percent of all mobile music sold worldwide. Asia used to comprise around only 20 percent of global music sales, but in terms of digital sales, especially mobile, the region will account for around half of global sales.” But given that the music industry is widely considered to be in serious decline, how much of a big deal is it for Asia to account of half of a total, that is, after all, stagnating? Sarronwala agrees that total music sales globally are leveling out, as shown by the US$40 billion total in 2007, projected to be only US$39 billion in 2010. “It really depends from which perspective you view the situation. Yes, from a music label perspective, they are seeing revenues eroded, and an organization like IFPI would agree the music industry’s share of consumer spending is in decline. But from the consumer perspective, the amount being spent on music is still increasing – particularly on digital music, and in Asia Pacific that means on music via mobile.” So-called ‘new media’ panelists at MIPCOM 2008 back in October tended to agree that revenues for content would still exist, but that those revenues would migrate along the value chain. While this discussion centered on revenues for audio-visual content, Sarronwala says this is what has happened to revenues for music content. “As you move into the digital delivery of product, royalty numbers (for the record labels) are lower, while the telcos become increasingly important in the value chain.” He says telcos are important for two reasons – their billing infrastructure which helps makes the process as seamless as possible for the consumer; and their investment in bandwidth that makes delivery possible. “Both back-end billing and bandwidth infrastructure will be equally important for the delivery of audio-visual content, so I’d be very surprised if the same patterns don’t transpire for audio-visual as they have for music content. Consumers will spend the same, if not more, on content – but revenues will be distributed differently along the value chain.” TVAplus