Digital music still a niche market

The music download market still has a long way to go, despite the current headlines about the iPod generation, according to industry analyst Gartner.

"Everyone talks about the success of iTunes, et cetera, but the data shows that only two per cent of consumers are downloading paid-for music in the UK," said Daren Siddall, media industry research analyst at Gartner.

Siddall said Gartner had conducted research at the end of 2005 and had just got the data back.

"I just had a look at the number of people in the UK who actually listen to music playlists stored on their PCs. It's only about 10 per cent of people," he said. "The fact is that digital audio is a relatively immature market."