The UK division of mobile company 3 yesterday announced that its customers bought more than one million music tracks and videos in April this year, which is a lot. In fact, it is the first time a UK mobile network has passed the million tracks in a month milestone.
The statistic demonstrates again that the 3G phone network, which sells music downloads direct to its customers' phones, is becoming an increasingly important player in the digital music market. Based on UK Official Chart Company statistics, 3 reckon they accounted for 17% of the UK digital download market last month.
Commenting on the news, 3 Marketing Director Graeme Oxby told CMU: "This million a month milestone is significant to us and to the wider music industry. In [digital] single sales, 3 is second only to iTunes. A few years ago no-one would have believed mobile could have had such an impact on the music market. These are exciting times for us as the market looks set to grow and grow."
Meanwhile, Peter Jamieson of UK record industry trade body the BPI added: "The UK record industry's investment in legal digital music distribution, combined with technical innovations such as mobile delivery, means that the UK now boasts the biggest and most advanced digital music market in Europe. British music is on a high, and the digital revolution means UK consumers have never had so much choice over where, when and how they buy their music."