Research firm Ipsos-Insight reports that an increasing proportion of Americans are using their mobile phones to download ringtones and are beginning to sample other mobile entertainment content. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of American mobile phone owners have downloaded ringtones to their mobile phones. This translates into approximately 30 million Americans within the current U.S. population, and marks a dramatic increase over the past 12 months, when only 5 percent of mobile phone owners had downloaded ringtones. Young Americans are not surprisingly the most prolific ringtone downloaders, with half of 12- to 24-year-old mobile phone owners reporting they have done so (52%, 12–17 and 49%, 18–24). The research reveals that older Americans are also experimenting with ringtones; 30 percent of 25–34 year olds, 17 percent of 35–54 year olds, and 5 percent of Americans aged 55 and older having downloaded ringtones to their mobile phone. Mobile phone owners are more likely to have paid for the ringtones they download, despite higher fees relative to buying a full song through a service such as Apple’s iTunes than PC music downloaders. 6 Percent of mobile phone owners report having downloaded full songs to their mobile phone, with smaller portions of the mobile population experimenting with downloading ring backs (6%), short video clips (3%) and music videos (2%).
