Ad-Funded Mobile Music Growing in ‘EU-5′ Markets

In its new report, “Mobile Music: Ads to the Rescue,” eMarketer forecasts that mobile music revenue in what it dubs the “EU-5″ countries – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – will top $1.4 billion by 2012, up from $267 million last year. Out of that total, the market research firm expects $170 million to come from ad-supported music, a segment that only contributed $4.6 million in 2007.

According to the report, marketers will account for a greater proportion of that overall spending as the ad-supported model for mobile music gathers steam.

“Mobile works better as a marketing and customer relationship platform than it does as a retail sales platform,” said eMarketer senior analyst and report author John du Pre Gauntt. “Bands and artists are increasingly using mobile to form direct relationships with their fans, which are then monetized through other means, such as tickets to live shows, merchandise and fan clubs.”

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