Mobile Tech Reviews

A recent study by the Forrester Research Inc. makes interesting reading. Not only are the number of legal MP3 downloads actually growing year on year, they are expected to continue to grow by 23% over the next five years. In 2012 online music downloads are expected to contribute more in terms of sales than physical CDs.

According to the report, this is the end of the music industry as we know it. That might be a little dramatic, but it is certainly a huge change and those not equipped (or not willing) to move with the times will be left behind. Simple. Actually this isn’t bad news for the industry at all – sure it’s bad for some organizations – and it might be good news fro the consumer.

And this is just the legitimate side of music downloads: unofficial downloads undertaken by users of filesharing software such as Ares are estimated to account for many, many more.

Seems like every day another music download site springs up. It’s not just Rhapsody, Itunes, Amazon anymore, but the major record labels are now all jumping into the market with their own model like Qtrax for music downloads. Even target is offering free music downloads now.

With all the buzz about the newscomers, you might think they are taking over the market. But according to the latest research, Ares p2p filesharing still has the most daily users and number of songs for download. This article goes into more detail about how
ares is still king.

The big record labels may have a ton of money to advertise their new download programs, but they are definately fighting an uphill battle against and entrenched competitor with Ares and Limewire p2p filesharing programs.