Yesterday I went to Innovation circus‘s Mobile Music Forum. Paolo Barbesino was there, presenting a M-Metrics research on mobile music. Here’s what I understood:
the whole Italian digital music market is worth 17 million euro. That’s peanuts. A single ceramic tile company in Sassuolo spends 2-3 million just to participate in Cersaie, the annual industry fair.
about two thirds (10 million) of that come from mobile music
the research uses data from a panel of 5,000 interviewees in each of the five main European countries. Really big time!
the research must have cost at least a couple million euro, so a figure comparable to the overall value of the Italian digital music market.
In the mean time – reports Il Sole 24 Ore quoting my friend Enzo Mazza, FIMI’s director (Italian branch of IFPI) – digital music in Italy grows slowly: +15% in 2006, which does not compare well to +116% in e-commerce. Enzo, do you not suspect that your associates are getting it wrong?
In te mean time the overall market for recording music in Italy loses another 18% to 600 million euro. And Radiohead decide to disintermediate their music: Il Sole quotes the remark of a top manager in an important European label: “When the best band in the world wants to cut us out, I am not sure there is going to be a future for this business.”