Getting personal

摘要

Thanks to the digital music revolution, personal audio sales are hooming. Chris Price looks at the opportunities for independent retailers. The personal audio market has changed beyond recognition in the last five years. Once dominated by portable CD players, it is now largely made up of MP3-based digital music players. Figures from GfK Marketing Services reveal that 6.3 million MP3 audio and MPEG4 video devices were sold in the UK in 2005, up from 1 3 million in 2004 - an astonishing rise of nearly BOO per cent in 12 months. The value of the market continues to rise too, up from ￡175 million in 2004 to ￡590 million in 2005. Contrast this with the portable CD market which continues its dramatic decline from 3.3 million units in 2004 to 2.3 million in 2005, Significantly GfK's figures reveal the average price of a personal CD player is now just ￡21, compared to ￡180 for a hard disc based digital music player and ￡61 for MP3 players with flash memory.