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October 14, 2005
Despite record IPod sales Asian consumers unwilling to pay for music
While global IPod portable digital player sales have crossed 2 million a month, Asian consumers show little eagerness to pay for downloaded music.
Through its iTunes application, which combines a PC jukebox with paid music downloading service, Apple sells songs for about a dollar. These songs are eventually downloaded to iPod portable music players. Last July Apple crossed the half billion downloaded song mark with each song costing 99 cents (US).
According to a recent report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), digital music sales worldwide rose enough in the first half of 2005 to offset the decline in physical music sales. Research by Synovate however shows that 70% of consumers in Asia download music without paying.
Portable digital music player sales are booming in Asia, especially products that are not tied to paid music downloading services such as the iPod doing very well. Portable MP3 players are used by over one-third of consumers in Hong Kong, and 28% of consumers in China and South Korea.
Posted by admin at October 14, 2005 04:48 AM