Scores of websites dedicated to offering music downloads in the hugely popular MP3 formats, sometimes almost at no cost, have been instrumental in maneuvering the shift in the purchase behaviour of music enthusiasts. As opposed to purchasing bulks of audio CD's or even MP3 format CD's for that matter, consumers today are more inclined to simply downloading from the internet. Several reports published are only attesting this fact over and over again. One of the more recent findings has declared that the gap created within the music sales industry through the decline in the sales of CD's, although fairly large, is being attempted to close in through the slow but sure rise in the sales of digital music. The sale of digital music accounts for only a tenth of the industry's overall music sales, and therefore it seems a while before it surmounts the figures created by the shortfall of CD's sales.



Japan however has already managed to give this trend the slip. Whilst reports have sufficiently proven that the digital music sales has already covered up for the loss created by the decline in sales of music CD's, it may come as a surprise to learn that the Japanese music industry saw a rise of one per cent in the overall sales; clearly spearheaded by the increase in mobile downloads. Add to this the fact that the country, like others in the South ? East Asian region, has a high consumption of mobile phone ring tones. The music industry in South ? East Asia has a lot of local artistes thriving and owing to the fact that these countries form a cluster of non ? English speaking nations; it is quite understandable to note that local artistes enjoy mass popularity within their home countries. Sing tones, the Karaoke counterpart of mobile phone ring tones, according to experts has already taken the nation by storm which is commonly known to have pioneered the concept of Karaoke.

Looking at the value added services available on mobile phones that need to be downloaded, reports indicate that mobile phone games are subscribed to by roughly two per cent of the consumers in the United Kingdom, and a little over three and a half per cent of consumers downloaded ring tones and wallpapers, with only half a per cent opting to watch a paid video and an even smaller per cent of users wanting to download a full song. This clearly points to the fact that mobile phone ring tones is still the undisputable leader in the category of value added services and its latest avatar of video tones is yet to become a popular force to reckon with.

Studies conducted across the United Kingdom to understand the usage pattern and behaviour of mobile phone ring tone consumers have thrown up some very interesting facts. Reports say that consumers are increasingly conscious of the style statement that ring tones make and extremely wary of the perception that others might have of them based on the ring tone played out on their mobile phones. As a result they are constantly in the race of upgrading their knowledge of the latest ring tones and hits to websites that display the ?Top 10 Ring Tones' for the week have increased in the recent past. Several web sites have their own ratings list and offer subscription to users for a small fee. This allows them a regular access to the most popular ring tones and the means to download them. With roughly 80 per cent of the respondents being constantly worried about their choice of ring tones, it is no wonder that at least 10 per cent of them change their ring tones every week.