Mobile music growth: 7digital hits 1 million mobile users, 20% of sales direct to device

UK-based digital music provider 7digital has announced that it’s now serving one million active users on mobile devices.

The milestone follows deals that have seen 7digital’s services installed on pre-installed on millions of mobile devices. Apps for Android and BlackBerry, plus third-party use of the company’s API have driven the growth, which has also been helped along by partner deals with the likes of Samsung, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Philips and Toshiba.

Significantly, 7digital, which offers its own digital music store in Europe and the US, as well as partnerships to sell music through third parties such as Spotify, says that over 20% of its digital content sales are now happening direct to mobile devices such as phones and tablets, indicating that users are increasingly happy with bypassing a desktop PC completely when it comes to music purchases.

7digital says that the current most popular device with its users is the Samsung Galaxy SII, while its Android app has been installed over 500,000 times and its BlackBerry app over 600,000 times. The company predicts that its software will be pre-installed on more than 20 million devices over the next year.