One of the issues I’ve been banging about for the last three years is that kids are using Bluetooth to share music and ringtones. This has been met with widespread scepticism among ye of little faith.
New research commissioned by our friends at New Media Age released today shows that the tsunami I was talking about is actually here. 29% of children aged between 9 and 13 share files this way and I’m very sure it’s even higher among their older brothers and sisters.
One of the big issues with Bluetooth sharing is that it’s untraceable as it by-passes the operator network. This is a double whammy for operators as they still sell a lot of content and they don’t get the data traffic. In fact, given operators’ traditional reluctance to cannabilise revenues, it’s pretty amazing that they let Bluetooth creep in to handsets at all. After all, they’re resisting wifi enabled handsets (to prevent VoIP calls and loss of data traffic) and were very slow to embrace IM in case it cannibalised SMS revenues - my opinion is that it won’t by the way, but that’s a subject for another post.
The research also confirms another of my little theories - that many kids are using the mobile to listen to music. In fact 30% use their mobile as their main device for this. I quoted Nokia a few weeks back who were claiming that about two thirds of people used their phone for playing music and several people scoffed at me for believing them - you know who you are :-). Bearing in mind that this research was talking about using the phone as the main music consumption device and Nokia’s claim was in reference to people ever using it like that, I think that they’re roughly in the same ballpark. The figures would be much nearer if applied to teens, not tweens, as well.
So what’s going to happen next? Well, lots of people from the music industry and telecoms are going to go and panic and especially try to apply DRM solutions to prevent people from doing this. Like any DRM solution it won’t work or stop the problem - just cost the initiators a lot of money. I’m betting at least one operator will disable Bluetooth or at least pressure the handset manufacturers to leave it out of their specs for the handsets they supply. And I’m sure we’ll see a few more lawsuits, as the music industry just can’t resist suing their customers, whether they’re kids or grannies.
Finally, reason will prevail and a solution will present itself - Ad-funded or Ad-subsidised content. We could save a lot of time and energy if we reached this conclusion now. Adopt your business model to the prevalent market conditions, don’t go into denial. After all, once the PC came along, would you carry on making typewriters?
Russell Buckley talks more about the rise in bluetooth sharing…
It’s amazing how two people can have the same epiphany in one day … and blog about it! At least my discovery also got me a date. 1 for Stefan Really tho check out his complete post, and this is…
We talked about this two years or more ago. Maybe researchers need to get out of their offices and into the playgrounds of secondary schoolsn In fact just talk to kids 11 - 16 and they’ll tell you all about how they share media propertiese with each other. Ring tones, photos, videos etc are regularly shared peer-to-peer by children in schools in the UK.
Verizon Wireless here in the states got hit with a class-action suit a couple of years ago when they disabled certain Bluetooth profiles on some Motorola handsets they sold, essentially to prevent the transfer of photos and such off the device for free.
I’m not sure that operators will react the same way to this. Quite honestly, the user experience for transferring full-track music files over Bluetooth is pretty poor, and realistically, are 8- to 13-year-olds going to be buying that many tracks from operators’ music stores? While I don’t doubt that kids are doing this, I think its impracticality limits how deeply it will be used and how widely across the market. It’s much less simple than using P2P networks — it’s slower and there’s the added limitation of proximity, plus the fact that you can’t use your device for anything else while it’s transferring.
Still, I don’t doubt that operators’ ideas for paid mobile music downloads are largely off base. But the idea is to make the stores pleasant enough to use that large numbers of people will choose them instead of file-sharing, a la iTunes Music Store.
What particuarly gets me, though, is that the idea of downloading a full track of music to a mobile isn’t particularly compelling, is it? It’s about the simplest, most basic idea for mobile music. Yet operators act as if it’s some sort of holy grail. My advice would be to cede that market, or just partner with an existing music store, and move on to coming up with something more interesting, more interactive and that takes advantage of a relatively high-speed network connection.
At Aerodeon we run a bi-annual research effort on 50 kids (12 -25) to test the temperature of their wireless habits. This research is for our clients but we can certainly concur with Russel on this one….Gen-Y (12-19) are using Bluetooth file sharing in hoardes. Partularly prevalent amongst boys who love Bluetooth gaming. Interesting to note that not one of the the kids in both our surveys in 2006 used WAP. Although our sample is not statistically significant our findings anecdotally seem to conradict Harris/Enpocket surveys that suggest 60% of 18-24 yr olds use WAP at least once a month. For content downloads maybe…for browsing? No way. Harris should know better. Flat rate, hurry up….
Best, Chris.
Carlo, for once we might have to agree to disagree on this, me old mucker. I know the UI is less than satisfactory, but free makes people overcome a lot of hurdles. After all, good old sms has survived as awful user experience, so if people like it/want it, they’ll put up with usability issues.
This is a huge issue and getting huger by the minute.
I remember the Verizon case, but it won’t stop others trying (or at least thinking about it) in less litigious markets.
Ho hum.
Chris. I agree. Next year will see the advent of flat rate. Well, I sincerely hope so!
Stephen…Ranier ahead of the curve, again. You just might be that contradiction in terms; a PR agency that understands technology! Although if we have other readers in PR at MobHappy I’m sure that they also know what they’re talking about
Russell
[...] Another one of Russell’s posts I was reading suggests that Bluetooth file sharing is being used regularly by kids to share music, ringtones, pictures and so on. He goes on to say that: This has been met with widespread scepticism among ye of little faith. [...]
FYI for those locked into a carrier handset - by buying an imported, unlocked phone all the Bluetooth functionality will be restored.
I recently showed the Bluetooth functions of my unlocked RAZR to a friend who has a Cingular issued RAZR and they were amazed at what I could do as far as sharing files.
Russell, I don’t doubt at all that people are doing this, but I worry that you’re starting to sound like a record-label executive pouting over “lost” revenues from file-sharing
The bigger point I was trying to make is that I don’t think this sharing has a huge monetary impact, because you can’t assume that everything people share via Bluetooth is something they would have paid for. So your point in the end is definitely correct, that ad-supported content offers a solution. But this is a solution that should be seen as something that can grow the market, rather than something that can just maintain it. However, I fear you’re asking record labels to be proactive — something very few of them know how to do!
Carlo, at the risk of continuing to sound like a record exec
I do think there are “lost” revenues here actually. Of course, not every file shared would have been purchased in the first place. But in the ringtone sector especially where every week sees a new “must have” tone, getting it bluetoothed by pal is just too tempting.
If I had to put a figure on it, I’d say that about 10% of ringtones swapped might have been purchased, but that’s just gut feel.
That won’t stop a general feeling of panic in the content industry is these figures are believed.
Russell
[...] Lueskelin MobHappy:stä kyselystä (pdf), jonka mukaan 29% nuorisosta (9-13 vuotiaita) lähettää musiikkia bluetooth:n yli toisilleen. Lisäksi kaikenkaikkiaan 44% haluaisi tehdä tälläistä. Kyselyyn oli osallistunut n. 1500 ja ilmeisesti tehty Englannissa. [...]
[...] Er is onlangs een onderzoek gepubliceerd door New Media Age waarin het gebruik van de mobiele telefoon onder kinderen is onderzocht. Een van de dingen die naar voren kwam is dat 29% van de kinderen Bluetooth gebruiken voor het “delen” van (muziek)bestanden met hun leeftijdsgenoten. [...]
I don’t even know why a study needs to legitimize your opinion, Mr. Buckley. On certain smartphones and PDAs I’ve recently tried out, Bluetooth file-sharing is soooo easy that a 10-year-old can literally figure this out for himself!
[...] My next concept was that the ringtone market would continue to contract (or implode). My thinking on this was a combination of the rise of Bluetooth sharing (unnoticed and unconfirmed until recently) and of user generated content, plus user wariness after being stung by inadvertent subscriptions. And it’s only a matter of time before ad funded content starts to happen, though as it turned out, this wasn’t to be this year. [...]
Walked into the apple store in amsterdam with a couple of friends. Walked through an iTunes playlist. Listened to a nice track on this computer. Showed track in finder. With a few clicks I was able to share the track to my nokia n73 and just “stole” the track in a few moments. Bluetastic.
[...] I’ve been pointing out for the last three years that Bluetooth filesharing is rampant on phones, particularly among kids. Late last year, we got some “official” evidence to that effect, with a claimed 29% of young kids sharing content through the back door. I’d say it was even higher among their older brethren. [...]
[...] Bluetooth File Sharing IS Happening (tags: bluetooth mobile sharing youth socialsoftware filesharing) [...]
[...] Another one of Russell’s posts I was reading suggests that Bluetooth file sharing is being used regularly by kids to share music, ringtones, pictures and so on. He goes on to say that: This has been met with widespread scepticism among ye of little faith. [...]