For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Taking Digital Music To The Mainstream: The Music Product Features For The Living Room

by Mark Mulligan, November 6, 2009

The iPod heralded a new paradigm in music consumption, but it has done little to counter the impact of the CD's terminal decline; it may even have helped accelerate it. Although mobile music now looks set to start delivering on some of its promises, it . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Music Product Manifesto: The Product Features That Will Save Recorded Music

by Mark Mulligan, September 29, 2009

In 2009, the album celebrates its 100th birthday and yet remains the centerpiece of the recorded music product portfolio. The time has come for a radical overhaul of the recorded music product range. Forrester proposes a music product manifesto of consumer . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Music Release Windows: The Product Innovation That The Music Business Can't Do Without

by Mark Mulligan, September 4, 2009

In the late 20th century, music business artist contracts, development cycles, release schedules, and promotional activity were all shaped around getting a little shiny disc of a dozen or so tracks into the stores. Now in the 21st century, the album straightjacket . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Napster Legacy: File Sharing 10 Years On

by Sonal Gandhi, Mark Mulligan, June 5, 2009

After 10 years and numerous attempts to combat it, file sharing remains the biggest thorn in the media industry's side. While the true financial impact of file sharing remains a contentious topic, it has permanently shaped consumers' expectations of digital . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Paying For Success: When Audiences Grow More Quickly Than Ad Revenue

by Mark Mulligan, April 17, 2009

"Free" has always been the cornerstone of digital content, but the repeated failure of paid content to break out of a niche has left many content genres focusing even more keenly on ad-supported strategies. Audiences are responding in kind, spending more . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Monetizing Social Music

Choosing The Right Product And Services Strategy

by Mark Mulligan, April 8, 2009

As CD sales continue to fall off the proverbial cliff and the paid download market fails to take up the slack, social music destinations prosper, utilizing the power of the Web to a degree that download stores never did. Although the most sophisticated . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

French Digital Consumers And Their Increasing Adoption Of Online Activities

Online Users Mature, But Adoption Of Online Activities Shows No Signs Of Leveling Off

by Mark Mulligan, March 9, 2009

Young male users no longer dominate the French online audience; the majority of French online users are now female. However, French online activity adoption continues to accelerate even as the audience broadens beyond typically more active early adopters. . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

What Ad Agencies Want From Online Media

Agencies Are Looking For Integration, Control, And Reliability

by Mark Mulligan, March 3, 2009

Media firms have been obsessing over the needs of advertising agencies for more than a century, and online media properties have made these relationships much more complex. Agencies tell Forrester that successful media properties will provide them with . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

How Digital Licensing Will Help Save The Music Industry

European Music Forecasts, 2008 To 2014

by Mark Mulligan, January 20, 2009

"Digital music 1.0" is stuck in a niche, while CD sales continue to plummet. In 2009 and 2010, these trends will continue, and new emerging business models will not generate revenues meaningful enough to prevent further revenue decline. Solid growth in . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Internet Access Forecast, 2008 to 2013

by Mark Mulligan, December 18, 2008

Dynamic broadband adoption across Europe is accelerating the rate of overall home Internet adoption in many European markets.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Mobile Broadband Forecast, 2008 to 2013

Assessing the Impact of an Economic Downturn on Uptake

by Mark Mulligan, November 24, 2008

European mobile operators are actively marketing mobile broadband services to consumers, building the market beyond early business users. However, the prospect of a downturn in the European economy threatens consumer spending.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Digital Music in Japan

Assessing the Dominance of Mobile

by Mark Mulligan, October 10, 2008

In July 2007, the single "Flavor of Life" by EMI artist Utada Hikaru sold more than seven million copies in Japan across all digital formats, including Internet downloads, mobile over the air (OTA), true tones, and video.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Portable Device Forecast, 2008 to 2013

by Mark Mulligan, September 30, 2008

Sony reported that PlayStation Portable (PSP) sales exceeded those of PlayStation 2 and 3 combined in the second quarter of 2008, with global sales of more than 3.7 million.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Subsidized Mobile Music Subscriptions

Target Entry-Level Offerings to Drive Mass-Market Appeal

by Mark Mulligan, September 29, 2008

In December 2007, Nokia announced the forthcoming launch of Comes With Music (CWM), providing buyers of certain mobile phone handsets access to unlimited music free of charge for one year. Nokia will fully subsidize the cost of the music, and consumers . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Music Consumer Survey, 2008

Target Social Fans to Drive Engagement

by Mark Mulligan, September 24, 2008

Social music sites such as imeem and Last.fm have strong music-focused communities built around compelling music features, but artist pages on MySpace and Bebo remain a core destination for online music fans.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Portable Media Players

Identifying Opportunity in a Maturing European Market

by Mark Mulligan, September 22, 2008

By mid-2008, Apple reported selling more than five billion tracks globally on its iTunes Music Store. At the same point in time, cumulative global iPod sales surpassed 160 million. Thus, 31 tracks have been sold for every one iPod.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

High-Quality Audio

European Digital Music Consumers

by Mark Mulligan, July 24, 2008

In April 2007, EMI, together with partners Apple and 7Digital, announced that it would be selling its catalogue without digital rights management (DRM) at twice the audio quality of standard files (256 kbps compared with 128 kbps) at a slight price premium . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

European Paid Content and Activity Forecast, 2008 to 2013

by Mark Mulligan, July 14, 2008

Music is the most successful online content genre in an otherwise modestly performing European paid content market, despite digital music revenues having been too small to offset the impact of declining CD sales.

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

European Consumer Segmentation

Profiling Entertainment Seekers and Utilitarians

by Mark Mulligan, May 23, 2008

JupiterResearch segmented the European online audience to better understand the way in which consumers use the Internet and how their usage may be mapped against demographic and digital sophistication variables. Four key groups were defined based on the . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Three-Screen Audiences

Charting the Rise of PC Video Consumption

by Mark Mulligan, May 5, 2008

The early success of European TV broadcasters' online video strategies (e.g., BBC's iPlayer) reflects consumers' growing demand for second-screen video content.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Digital Music

Converting Nonbuyers

by Mark Mulligan, May 5, 2008

A host of innovative digital music service announcements indicate renewed momentum in the digital music marketplace. However Apple's iTunes Music Store remains the dominant force.

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

Central and Eastern European Internet Access Forecast, 2008 to 2013

by Mark Mulligan, April 23, 2008

Increased affordability of PCs and broadband Internet access will continue to spur strong growth in Internet adoption in central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

European Next-Generation Digital Music Services

Remove Consumer Barriers to Drive Mass-Market Adoption

by Mark Mulligan, March 20, 2008

'Away day' strategies of key technology vendors, such as Apple and Nokia, are blurring the boundaries between mobile and fixed music services and will precipitate a new generation of platform-agnostic music services.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Sonos and Napster Bring On Demand Digital Music into the Living Room

by Mark Mulligan, March 20, 2008

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

MusicStation Plays to the Strength of the Device and Gives Mobile Music a Much Overdue Unique Identity

by Mark Mulligan, March 20, 2008