Indians happy with music download experience - KPMG

Indians top the list of those who are happy with their music download experience, according to the latest KPMG Consumers and Convergence III survey. 95 per cent of Indians surveyed expressed their satisfaction with their music download experience on their mobiles in the last 12 months, followed by 86 per cent in the UK and 84 per cent in the US. Music, the survey reveals, is a very desirable commodity and attractive to mobile phone users; 30 per cent of respondents have purchased songs on their mobile phones in the last 12 months.

KPMG surveyed over 4,000 consumers in 19 countries world wide, in order to understand the future for the market, revealing global trends and some startling regional differences. Jehil Thakkar, Head of KPMG’s Media and Entertainment practice in India comments,” This survey clearly shows the great potential India has for Value Added Services. Convergence is rapidly unlocking the value of India’s vast and growing mobile user base. Those companies that employ innovative strategies to monetize this trend are likely to benefit for a long time to come.”

The survey reveals that while a majority of users globally are not willing to receive advertisements on mobile phone in exchange for free content, in India, 80 per cent users were willing to receive advertisement for free music downloads and more than 50 per cent were willing to receive advertisement for free instant messaging and video games. This indicates that Indian mobile subscribers are more open, than most others, to ad-funded content. Further, 66 per cent of Indian users, compared with 49 per cent in China, are at least somewhat open to allowing tracking of online usage in exchange for lower costs. The global economic slowdown could be reflected in consumers’ feedback that pricing influences their mobile phone multimedia technology purchases. Eighty four percent cite clear pricing and 83 percent cite cost of service as top of their list of factors impacting their next purchase of full track music downloads. Again this finding was consistent across all regions and all age groups. Indeed in India, 94 per cent cite clear pricing and 97 percent cite cost of service as top of their list of factors impacting their next purchase of full track music downloads.