New research from analyst Informa Telecoms & Media shows over half of UK mobile users change the ringtone on their phone regularly, but only 13 percent of us pay for the privilege.
Of 1870 people surveyed by Informa, in partnership with Orange, nearly one thousand had changed their tone in the last six months but less than 250 had paid to do so. The implication is that users are ripping mp3s from their collections, and reconfiguring them, swapping tones with friends, or stealing samples from websites, rather than buying from dedicated services.
Informa's Daniel Winterbottom said: “There’s a wide gap there - something is missing. Whether it’s the ease of use in downloading or the perceived value, it’s important we try to identify where the gap is stemming from.”
Meanwhile, while almost all consumers are aware their handsets can play music, only 27 percent have done so - and a 64% of consumers said they had a negative experience with mobile music.
Questioning the effectiveness of digital rights management standards, Winterbottom added: “I don’t know how much sense it makes to charge people twice to listen to something on two different devices.”
Informa's Daniel Winterbottom said: “There’s a wide gap there - something is missing. Whether it’s the ease of use in downloading or the perceived value, it’s important we try to identify where the gap is stemming from.”
Meanwhile, while almost all consumers are aware their handsets can play music, only 27 percent have done so - and a 64% of consumers said they had a negative experience with mobile music.
Questioning the effectiveness of digital rights management standards, Winterbottom added: “I don’t know how much sense it makes to charge people twice to listen to something on two different devices.”