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The Global Mobile Music Market will Reach $21.3 Billion

Historically, the Grammys event is an annual celebration of songwriter and performing artist accomplishments during the course of the year. It's not usually an event where copyright reform becomes the focal point, or where honorees air their concerns about the state of the music industry.

But times have changed. The transition to digital content production and online streaming distribution has disrupted various parts of the entertainment sector -- with the overall recorded music market still adapting to the big changes that have impacted the prior status-quo.

The consumption of music on mobile devices is the key trend to watch. It's a huge market. Strategy Analytics says that the total global mobile music market value will grow from $12.8 billion in 2014 to reach $21.3 billion by 2021.

New growth will be driven by the combined effect of the dominance of mobile music streaming -- both paid subscription and ad-funded free listening -- in all markets, the transition from physical to digital music consumption in Japan, and the increasing consumption of legal music content by mobile users in China and other emerging markets.

Strategy Analytics  believes that the increasing popularity of mobile music streaming has been a trend across different markets, but other kinds of mobile music consumption do not just go away.

"Over the last two years, we have witnessed a fast growth in both demand for and supply of mobile music streaming services in particular in North America and Western Europe, which is coupled by a slow decline in pay-per-download sales," said Nitesh Patel, director at Strategy Analytics.

The popularity of streaming services is also seen in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America, though in these markets the sales from pay per download are still growing, albeit at a slower pace.

On the supply side, in addition to the familiar names like Spotify and Deezer that continue to expand, there are also local Asian services that have experienced fast growth -- such as Saavn and Gaana in India and Tencent in China.

Meanwhile, there has been a noticeable slowdown in the highly profitable mobile device personalization sector -- such as ringtones and ringback tones offered by mobile operators -- particularly from China and other Asian markets.

There are signs that Chinese consumers are embracing mobile streaming. In Japan, music consumption is transitioning from physical to digital. With smartphone penetration still growing worldwide, it should continue to provide further demand in the global mobile music market.

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