Music downloads predicted to go up 10-fold by 2010

LONDON: A study by online money transfer site PayPal shows that music downloads will go up ten fold in Britain by 2010. The Digital Content Report by PayPal says this increase will account for nearly 15 per cent of all music sold in the country.

According to estimates projected in the report, an average music enthusiast would download 25 songs at a cost of 15 pounds, which will be totally worth over 379 million pounds by 2010. Even downloads on to cellphones will go up and will be worth around 200 million pounds.

In addition to music downloads, other services like movie clips and mobile TV can push the market for mobile phone downloads 380 million pounds in 2005 to 1.14 billion pounds by 2010, the report has predicted.

Availability of an increasing range of music and the average price in the range of 60 pence a download could boost legal downloads, the report said.

PayPal also said download of movies on to computers is another segment that is poised for growth. From a nil figure today, this sector could have a value as high as 109 million pounds by 2010.

PayPal Europe’s general manager, U.K. merchant services Carl-Olav Scheible said consumers are going to shift more of their music purchasing to online services as devices change, digital storage becomes more prevalent and use of discs becomes less widespread.

The report also predicts that ebooks and online gaming will be other areas where substantial growth will be seen. Buying games could reach 9 million pounds by 2010 and ebooks around 8.9 million pounds.

The research for the report was conducted in the early parts of March by corporate data firm Datamonitor.