Profiling The Paid Content Consumer Music Still Leads In A Niche But Growing Sector

The 20,000 Foot View

Paid content used to be one of the web’s backwaters. Change, however, is afoot, thanks to innovations such as app stores, tablets and media streamers.  Music, video, games and books all compete for attention and wallet share on consumers’ connected devices.  Now, with an ever-growing number of consumers willing to pay for downloads and subscriptions, the paid content marketplace is finally achieving meaningful scale.

Key Findings

           of consumers pay for some form of digital content
• The US            the highest rate of paid            penetration at           
• Music downloads            the most widely purchased content            with            penetration
• Music subscriptions            still outpaced by downloads, but            subscriptions have already overtaken video           
• Mobile reinvented            games’ market, with games accounting                       of the top grossing mobile            globally
• Mobile apps            the youngest paid audience, while            have the oldest

Companies mentioned in this report:  Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google, Deezer, Rhapsody, Hulu, Hachette, Scribd, Oyster, Facebook, Roku, Pandora