How Much Will People Pay for Music?

A new survey by Nielsen suggests there is reasonable hope that some percentage of users will pay for online or mobile music. The bad news is that an overwhelming majority of consumers in every age category say they are not willing to do so, over the next three months.

It isn't clear whether the percentages would be meaningfully higher if the respondents were asked whether they would be paying for music any time during the next 12 months.

Especially among digital music’s early adopter 20 to 24 year old segment, the mobile phone is fast becoming the mainstay of how they stay connected to the world and how they listen to and increasingly buy music.

The good news is that nearly one in four (24 percent) of the 20 to 24 year old segment globally indicated they aer prepared to pay to download music videos on their mobile phone. According to the Nielsen survey, males aged between 20 to 24 clearly are the global early adopters for digital music consumption.

The bad news is that more than 75 percent of respondents claim they will not pay for any online or mobile music, streamed or downloaded, over the next three-month period. Up to this point, buyers have proven comfortable with a 99-cent price for a single song, extrapolated from, or to, roughly that same amount per song, for a compact disc.

But lots of executives in the media business still see more hope for subscription products of one sort or another, compared to any form of pay per view or downloads.