Vodafone is claiming leadership of Europe’s mobile music market, after gathering almost half-a-million paying subscribers to its DRM-free services since March 2009.
The carrier credits its clear pricing policies for helping it sign up 450,000 users to its music services. Subscribers can opt for a monthly bundle that allows them to download 10 tracks, or a variety of all-you-can-eat packages.
Some 100,000 subscribers signed up in December alone in Vodafone’s eight key European markets – Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.
“Vodafone is starting to prove the significance of its place in the music industry,” Lee Epting, director of content at Vodafone Internet Services, states.
Epting predicts that increasing use of smartphones would drive continued growth in subscriber numbers, and pledged to work hard with music industry partners “to develop new and innovative music services.”
The first step towards those new services will be to grow the catalogue of music from the current 2 million tracks to 6 million over the course of 2010.