Unlimited Music Comes to UK Mobiles

From Jonathan Richards, Times Online:

Omnifone, the UK-based digital music company, has announced a service which will allow mobile users to download an unlimited number of songs to their phone as part of their monthly plan - and keep them even if they change their contract.

The service, called Music Station Max, will be rolled out in the UK in the first half of the year, and will initially be available on LG phones, though deals with other manufacturers would follow, the company said.

As part of the service, subscribers will be able to download an unlimited number of songs directly to their phone via the 3G network, and then 'sideload' them onto their computer, where they can create playlists and share proferences with friends using Omnifone's software.

If the user chooses to change his or her contract, they can either continue subscribing to an 'unlimited download' service for a monthly fee - similar to the Napster model, or leave the service, in which case a number of the downloaded songs will remain on their phone. The company has not said how many.

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Microsoft, Nokia in Mobile DRM Deal

From Eric Sylvers, IHT:

Microsoft and Nokia, which both make operating systems for mobile phones and compete for control of that market, are coming together in a rare accord in an effort to take advantage of the expected explosion of the sale of mobile digital content in the coming years. Under the agreement to be announced Monday, Microsoft's PlayReady DRM technology - which helps content owners like music companies and service providers deliver digital content while restricting access - will be loaded directly on some Nokia phones beginning early next year.

The market for mobile content - music, games, graphics, video and adult material - will exceed $44 billion in 2011, up from $20 billion this year, the market researcher iSuppli estimates. But many consumers have balked from the beginning at the restrictions put on them with DRM. And some analysts argue that the technology has limited the growth of digital content sales.

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Canadian Man Receives $59,000 Cell Phone Bill for Downloads

From Jason Kobely, News 10:

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Even a talkative teenager wielding an iPhone probably couldn't do this much damage. One Canadian man said his cell phone bill catapulted from around $147 a month to $59,000 in November.

But even he managed to top himself with a mind-boggling $83,000 bill for December.

The 22-year-old said he uses the phone to download movies and music onto a computer.

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Nokia In Free Music Pact With UMG

From Reuters:

Handset giant Nokia said on Tuesday it has agreed with the world's largest music group Universal to offer free 12-month access to Universal artists' music for buyers of Nokia's music phones.

The world's top cellphone maker said it has signed up Universal Music Group International, owned by French media giant Vivendi, for its new "Comes With Music" offering and is eyeing similar deals with other labels before the offer starts in the second half of 2008.

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Mobile to Account for 30% of Music Retail Value by 2011

From FierceWireless:

Music delivered to mobile phones via operators’ networks (mobile music) is on the rise, currently representing around 13% of global recorded music retail value. A new industry report from Understanding & Solutions forecasts an increase to almost 30% by 2011, amounting to $11Bn and helping to offset some of the decline in packaged music revenues.

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Talking Technologies Releases Music by Phone, SingMee.com

From CNN Money:

SingMee.com Is a Revolutionary New Way to Send a Song, Listen to Your Music Collection, Favorite Radio Station, or Listen to a Live News Broadcast Using ANY TELEPHONE From Anywhere in the World

Nettel Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: NTTL) division, Talking Technologies, releases music by phone, SingMee.com

You can now enjoy your favorite music collection all day long no matter where you are or send a song with a special greeting to anyone. SingMee.com makes use of phones that are available just about everywhere in the world, are always on, and don't have to be BOOTED UP.

Whether you are in located Brazil, Africa, Asia, Europe, or in China for the 2008 Olympics, using any telephone you can dial into one of our local access phone numbers located in over 40 countries and listen to thousands of radio stations from all over the world: Pop, Rock, Hip-Hop, Dance, Classical, and many others. We are currently configuring SingMee to work with many of the online Music Video and Digital Music Services. This feature will also include a built-in directory of internet radio broadcasters containing over 15,000 listings with access to 70 music genres, capable of multiple parallel streaming from an unlimited number of internet radio stations.

In addition, you can also upload your favorite song collection into your SingMee inbox. You can listen to it at any time 24/7 by dialing into a local access number and entering the extension for each song. Songs uploaded in your SingMee inbox are saved as individual, high quality MP3 files, auto-tagged with the Artist, Album, Title and Genre.

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Faster iPhone On Its Way

From ABC News:

AT&T CEO Says Apple Plans to Unveil IPhone With Faster Web Browsing in 2008

AT&T Inc. says it plans to offer a version of an iPhone next year that runs on a faster wireless network so users can get speedier results when surfing the Web.

The move would address one of the main drawbacks about the smart phone made by Apple Inc. and distributed exclusively by wireless carrier AT&T in the United States.

The difference in performance is similar to a dial-up Internet connection versus a high-speed broadband connection.

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Verizon Opens Way to More Options in Handsets, Software

From Wailin Wong, Chicago Tribune:

For years, mobile phone customers have been frustrated with the strange economics of the wireless industry: Consumers could choose the phone they want, or the carrier, but often not both.

But the balance of power now may be shifting, giving consumers much more control over their choice of phones, features and carriers.

On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless, the nation's second-largest carrier, said it planned to open its network to any device or application that meets certain standards. The result means that subscribers will be able to choose from a far broader array of handsets and software for downloading music, watching videos or browsing the Internet by the end of 2008.

Further ahead, assuming software developers and other technology
providers accept Verizon's offer, many more kinds of gadgets will be hooked into the wireless network, ranging from digital cameras to portable gaming systems to
home appliances.

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Dell To Launch Wireless Music Streaming Portal?

From Erica Ogg, CNET:

If you haven't heard of Zingspot.com yet, you soon might.

It was recently registered by none other than Dell, which also applied for a trademark on the name.

Zingspot is likely related to Zing Systems, a company that Dell acquired in August. Zingspot.com is described in the document filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as "an online consumer portal for digital entertainment content acquisition and distribution."

Dell had little to say when it acquired the tiny, Mountain View, Calif., company that makes streaming audio software.

But Zing makes a pretty nifty technology, one that SanDisk licensed for use in its Sansa Connect. It's software for real-time audio streaming--meaning you can get music wirelessly from an online source and from other portable devices.

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Samsung SLM Brings Napster Downloads to AT&T on Black Friday

From infoSync World:

Samsung's new flip will be the first Napster Mobile device on AT&T, offering single-track downloads, not subscription service.

Samsung today announced their newest slim flip phone, the SGH-A747, otherwise known as the Samsung SLM. The SLM follows the obviuos family lineage of other thin Samsung flip phones, notably the Helio Fin, and at just over a half inch thick, it won't be the thinnest flip on the market, but it will be impressively slim, nonetheless. More importantly, though, the SLM will be the debut device for AT&T's Napster Mobile service. Napster mobile, which was announced last month, will give AT&T the music download store they have been lacking, while CDMA competitors like Sprint and Verizon Wireless have had stores available for some time.

What differentiates these mobile music stores most is their pricing, and AT&T has decided to join the high end of the pricing model. Songs will be available in five packs for $7.50, or individually for $1.99. This is about what you'd expect to pay on Verizon's V Cast music store, though Sprint has taken the lead by offering $0.99 downloads this year.

We're disappointed by the music download service, especially since it uses the Napster brand, but doesn't offer the subscription service that is Napster's main selling point. And, a subscription-based mobile music service would have been a truly novel selling point, but instead AT&T has caught up with a product that is already behind the market, at least in terms of price. Still, other features, like simultaneous downloads to your home PC, can also be found elsewhere.

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Bronfman Tells Mobile Industry to Get With The Program

From Simon Aughton, MacUser:

The boss of Warner Music has made a rare public confession that the music industry has to take some of the blame for the rise of p2p file sharing.

Speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, Edgar Bronfman told mobile operators that they must not make the same mistake that the music industry made.

"We used to fool ourselves,' he said. "We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."

Mobile operators risk the same, he said. Fewer than 10% of mobile owners buy music on their handset, the vast majority of which is ringtones.

"The sad truth is that most of what consumers are being offered today on the mobile platform is boring, banal and basic," he said. "People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."

Bronfman suggested that mobile companies have much to learn from Apple, despite being critical of and iTunes in the past.

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Microsoft to Acquire Mobile Music Provider Musiwave

From CNNMoney:

BOSTON, Nov. 12, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Corp. said Monday it intends to acquire mobile music provider Musiwave SA, an Openwave Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:OPWV) company.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The acquisition would bring Musiwave's software expertise and relationships with operators and music companies together with Microsoft's connected technologies and services, Microsoft said.

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Labels Bank on Mobile Downloads

From Katie Allen, Guardian Unlimited:

Media record groups are saying the new services will turn the tide of falling sales.

Record labels are predicting that this month's launch of three new mobile phone music services will usher a return of rising sales after years of decline.

Apple's music-playing iPhone grabbed the headlines with its arrival in Britain last week. But music executives are just as excited about the new unlimited downloads service launched on Vodafone. At the same time Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, has opened a digital music store here.

Some industry insiders are predicting a revolution that will see mobile downloading approaching that of highly developed markets such as Japan.

The world's biggest music company, Universal, is backing the MusicStation, the Vodafone service. Rob Wells, head of digital at Universal's international division, predicts the £1.99-a-week subscription service will have mass market appeal. "We are at a turning point in the UK," he says, predicting digital music sales here could offset falling CD sales within a year.

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Breakup Lets Clearwire Pursue Other WiMax Partners, Including Google

From Matt Hamblen, Computerworld:

After announcing today that their formal WiMax partnership agreement was dissolved, both Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. said separately that they will continue informal discussions with each other on ways to advance the high-speed wireless technology.

Still, the most significant impact of their plans to tear up a July letter of intent to deploy mobile WiMax together is that Clearwire now has the freedom to find other partners to help roll out the technology, said Berge Ayvazian, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston.

Potential new partners with Clearwire could be satellite operators or even Google Inc., which expressed interest in purchasing 700-MHz spectrum at a federal auction in January that could be used with WiMax, Ayvazian said. "Wireless broadband from Clearwire could run alongside of dish satellite technology and others," he said in an interview. Possible partners with Clearwire on WiMax could be "satellite operators, why not? Even Google, why not?"

Analysts noted that there are many backers of WiMax, including those that Sprint still has lined up, such as Intel Corp. The chip maker has said it is prepping chips for laptops and smaller devices that will run WiMax.

"If push comes to shove, Intel will force the issue," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J.Gold Associates LLC in Northboro, Mass. "They'll put more money into it."

A spokeswoman for another interested supplier of WiMax equipment, Motorola Inc., said in an e-mail that despite the dissolution of the letter of intent, "Motorola sees no change in the pact of the buildout of the overall U.S. WiMax network." She said Motorola will continue to be a leading infrastructure vendor for Sprint's Xohm network and the only vendor working on Clearwire's portion of the U.S. WiMax network.

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Related: Music Streaming

Sony Ericsson K660 Phone - HSDPA Mobile Broadband

From Wireless and Mobile News:

London, UK - - Sony Ericsson announced the launch of the K660, an HSDPA (‘mobile broadband’) enabled phone with clever features like illuminated shortcut keys that only become active when surfing the Net, and desktop tickers that provide regular updates from your favourite websites; all designed to make Web browsing on the move as simple and convenient as at your computer.

The K660 is engineered to ensure that you’re not kept waiting for the news or content that matters to you. Music, video or email - HSDPA technology lets you download it all at speeds that are up to four times faster than regular 3G.

The K660 is a UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 phone that will be available in selected markets from Q1 2008.

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Related: Why Music-Piracy and DRM Ultimately Don't Matter

AT&T Streaming Radio to Certain Phones

Now if only AT&T would facilitate streaming individual tracks on demand, we'd really be getting somewhere. - Cayocosta

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced that Pandora, the popular and rapidly growing Internet radio service, is now available on select wireless phones from AT&T. With Pandora, AT&T's wireless customers can discover new music, listen to their favorite artists and create their own personalized radio stations on their handsets.

"Pandora allows our customers to access their customized radio stations wherever they are without the need to carry an extra device, and that provides the ultimate convenience," said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data for AT&T’s wireless unit. “Pandora’s unique approach to radio, combined with AT&T's already robust mobile music platform, supports consumer demand for more wireless music offerings. This service is another example of the many innovative ways that AT&T connects our customers to more of the music they want at the moment they want it."

"Pandora is a great way to discover new music that you may have never found otherwise," said Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora. “Now, listeners can have personalized music throughout the day — with the stations that they created — whenever and wherever they want. With this launch, AT&T and Pandora are continuing the ongoing expansion of Internet radio across all forms of listening."

Pandora is available for a free trial for the first five days and then costs $8.99 a month. AT&T recommends selecting a MEdia Max bundle, which not only provides unlimited mobile Web-browsing with MEdia Net but also unlimited access to streaming video, CV and basic content. The MEdia Max bundle is $19.99 a month and includes 200 text messages.

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