Mobile music downloads are too complex, execs say
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(InfoWorld) - Buying digital music from a mobile phone is too difficult and the music and mobile phone industries need to improve the process to meet demand, the chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group Corp. said on Wednesday. A study last year found that only 8.5 percent of people who own a phone that can be used to download and purchase music actually did so, saidÂ Warner Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.,Â speaking at the opening session of theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona on Wednesday. "Why? It's expensive, it's complicated and it's slow," he said. "It's amazing that we've generated as much revenue as we have given how cumbersome the experience can be." Forty percent of mobile phones in the U.K. have music players, said Ralph Simon, chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum for the Americas, speaking at the same event. This year, US$9 billion in revenue is expected to be generated from mobile music, including ring tones and over-the-air downloads, Bronfman said. While MTV's core customers are typically young and technically savvy, even they find buying mobile content too difficult, said Mika Salmi, president of global digital media for MTV Networks, a Viacom unit. Simplifying the process is key, he said. For example, business models that make it easier for customers to pay for content could boost take-up, he said. MTV encourages operators that it works with to sell subscriptions, which it has found increases use because customers know exactly what they'll pay. Buying a ring tone is an example of the complexity people can face. On average, users must click 20 times in a process that takes around two minutes to buy a ring tone, Bronfman said. Buying digital music on a phone is similarly complicated, he said. "So many platforms aren't capable of even the most basic content configurations, like a track bundled with a video," Bronfman said. That means buying the same content that would typically be included in an album over a mobile phone would be comparable to having to visit three stores to buy the album, its liner notes and the art work, he said. Apple's iPhone, the combined MP3 player and mobile phone expected to hit the U.S. market later this year, is a step in the right direction, Bronfman said. "Before it's even hit the market it has raised the bar in terms of what users expect with a user interface and what music phones should do," he said. Now it's up to other mobile phone makers to meet users' expectations. "For those who invent with a similarly inspiring vision, the opportunity is immense," he said.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - This past year marked the  beginning of a revolutionary experiment to sell and distribute  digital music to and from mobile phones. The stage is only just  being set, with the business models, pricing and marketing  issues still evolving.
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We may see the end of protected music downloads, but it won't be Apple's doing, argues Bill Thompson
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Music is becoming the dominant entertainment on mobile phones, reports BBC Click.
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Children are increasingly swapping music via mobile phone without realising they can be breaking the law.
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By Matt Moore  Omnifone, a British mobile music company, is unveiling a new music service Monday aimed at cell phone users who crave music while on the go, in the first of what is expected to be many challenges against Apple Inc.'s upcoming iPhone and its ubiquitous iTunes Store.
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The tune seems to be changing ever so slowly at some record labels when it comes to DRM. Both out of consumer demand and to some extent necessity, some have begun to offer digital downloads in the unprotected MP3 format.
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Chris Gorog is convinced people won&#39;t continue to pay $1 a song for online music. By Evan Agostini, Getty Images. That is despite Apple&#39;s (AAPL) record string
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Last week, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs called for an end to anti-piracy software on digital music as a way to let customers listen to their downloads on any device. The record labels responded with a mixture of scorn and indifference to the idea, which would disrupt their security measures.
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By ALEX VEIGA LOS ANGELES - Carlos Gomez could be the recording industry's ideal mobile music customer. His phone is his music player of choice and he spends about $100 a month buying songs for it - often on impulse after hearing a tune on his car radio.
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(InfoWorld) - Omnifone wants to put a new face on mobile phone music downloads with its MusicStation service. Built around a software client that runs on a wide range of phones, MusicStation links to a subscription-based online music store and allows users to build and share playlists, follow news about their favorite bands, and play and download music on their mobile for a fixed weekly fee, said CEO Rob Lewis. The MusicStation application lets subscribers download music over the air using GPRSÂ or 3G mobile networks. The software runs on phones with Symbian's OS or other phones that can run Java applets. Omnifone, based in London, hopes to challenge Apple's forthcoming iPhone, offering users a similarly easy-to-use music service from around three-quarters of phones currently sold, but giving network operators a slice of the revenue, Lewis said. The MusicStation platform charges music directly to the customer's phone bill and doesn't require customers to use a credit card. The company has reached agreements with 23 mobile network operators to use its music download platform to sell music from major record labels, including Universal Music Group. It has also partnered with Musiwave, a mobile music services provider that's part of Openwave Systems, to distribute the MusicStation system. Scandinavian operator Telenor and South African network VodacomÂ are scheduled to launch MusicStation first, by June. Omnifone will name four more customers in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region by June, it said at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Omnifone said consumers don't need a computer or broadband Internet connection to use MusicStation, although downloaded music can also be transferred to a user's computer with a premium subscription. MusicStation is priced as a weekly subscription; in the U.K., the price will be Â£1.99 per week ($3.87) or â¬2.99 ($5.82) throughout Europe. The premium service will be Â£2.99 in the U.K. and â¬3.99 throughout Europe. The platform supports DRM (digital rights management) technology, which limits how the music can be used, and tracks will be sold in the eAAC+ (enhanced advanced audio coding), Omnifone said. On 3G networks, they are encoded at 48Kbps, and on GPRS networks at 32Kbps to shorten download times. On phones with limited memory capacity, MusicStation monitors which tracks are played most often and deletes little-used tracks to free up space. They can, however, be downloaded again later as long as the user remains a subscriber, Lewis said. Peter Sayer in Paris, contributed to this report. Â
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Though digital music has come a long way, today's online music stores still have significant problems. Here's my fix-it wish list.
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Nokia launches a music download service that challenges both rival handset makers and network providers.
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Rival technologies that baffle consumers  will run more companies out of business in the nascent music  download market than will head-to-head competition, one of the  lead creators of MP3 playback technology warned on Wednesday.
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A British mobile music company fields a music-to-go service for cell phones -- the first of many likely challenges to Apple's iPhone and iTunes Store. By the Associated Press.
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Or dearer. Or disappear? So last year's " Future of Musicâ¢", the DRM-encumbered digital downloads model pioneered by Apple, has stalled. What now?â¦
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A report issued last week by JupiterResearch lead analyst Mark Mulligan, just two days after Apple CEO Steve Jobs published an open letter advocating the end of DRM, revealed that in a continental survey of European music industry executives, more than half agree with the statement that DRM measures are "overly restrictive."