One of the world’s largest music labels, Universal Music Group (UMG), claims that almost half of its digital business is now coming via mobile. In an interview with CNet News, Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of UMG’s eLabs, said around 40 to 45 percent of its digital business is coming via the music portals of mobile operators such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Caraeff said that Universal’s mobile business was now worth in access of US$100 million, driven by its move from content such as ringtones to full-length music sold over-the-air to mobile handsets. Universal has also recently merged its mobile and online divisions, so that consumers can access music across both platforms. “The customer doesn’t want a mobile only experience,” Caraeff said. “They want an all-digital multi-platform experience. They want to consume music on their mobile handset but have parity on their PC and other online platforms. Partners like Verizon and AT&T wanted to have multi-platform online experiences as well.”

Caraeff also pointed to the early success of Google’s Android platform in enabling mobile music: “It’s early days on Android. There’s not that many out there on T-Mobile [via the T-Mobile G1], but even with the small amount out there, they’re downloading and purchasing a ton of music over the air… Once the platform evolves, you’ll see music consumption really start to skyrocket.” He noted that Universal had also worked with Amazon to get the online retailer’s store integrated into the Android platform. “Amazon will tell you that Android is their single largest source of downloads from any third-party partnership that they’ve ever done,” Caraeff added.