Research Weighs Mobile Music Downloading, Side-Loading

As over-the-air mobile downloading starts to take root, more numbers are surfacing on the trend. Already, Sprint has revealed a tally of two million OTA downloads since its service became available late last year. And UK-based 3 shifted more than one million OTA tracks in April alone. But how do those numbers compare to content that is simply ported – or side-loaded – directly from the PC? Just recently, San Francisco-based Telephia released a report comparing OTA track downloading and side-loading among British consumers. The company found that 27 percent of 3G users downloaded content to their phones, and the average user grabbed 4.1 files per month. In terms of the preferred method of music delivery, though, some other findings emerged. In the survey, 44 percent of 3G subscribers preferred side-loading ripped content from their computers, while 49 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same. Comparatively, 14 percent of 3G users surveyed preferred downloading tracks directly from a carrier or non-carrier service, while 16 percent of non-3G subscribers preferred the same.