Music Biz Explores Wireless Frontier

Leading into CTIA in San Francisco this coming week, Reuters U.K. picks up a Billboard article on the growing market for mobile music on cell phones. Andrew Seybold said, "We're heading into areas where there is no market research. The only way we're going to find out what consumers will buy is to try various things and see what sticks."

For the over the air music download model, one of the key questions is how much are consumers willing to spend. Has iTunes set the bar at 99 cents or will consumers tolerate a price premium for the added convenience?

Nick Holland at Pyramid Research said, "To pay double or treble the amount of what you would be paying for the same track online is not going to receive the traction they're looking for. They will probably start off with a price point that is high and then discount it quickly as they realise that demand is not as anticipated."