Gartner: 25 Percent of Music Sales could be through Sharing by 2010

"Mike McGuire, vp of research for mobile devices and consumer services at Gartner Inc., San Jose, Calif., said he sees Microsoft's social-networking strategy as being based on recommendations that lead to sales. "The social nature of music as a form of currency is well established," he said. "But from the larger industry perspective, where it gets interesting and powerful is when music sharing can lead to actual purchase.""

"Gartner's recent research study, "Consumer Taste Sharing Is Driving the Online Music Business and Democratizing Culture," supports this. According to the report, said McGuire, nearly one-quarter of frequent online music users want the ability to share music. Also, some of the most regular users of online music are the most interested in consumer-generated recommendation tools. McGuire and co-author Derek Slater predicted that by 2010, 25 percent of online music buying will be driven "directly from consumer-to-consumer taste-sharing applications.""

According to Gartner, Microsoft has the right strategy with is "Welcome to the Social" slogan and Zune sharing features. It's true that the Wi-fi feature is technically cool. We are certainly missing the Zune to PC synchronization, but the real goal for Microsoft is the sharing of music that will lead to music discovery for users and then converted to sales at the Marketplace. The missing part is the incentive for users to share their music with other users. This will come when Microsoft introduces the unannounced commission plan based on Microsoft points.

via Yahoo

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