Mobile Music

Spotify signs TeliaSonera for mobile music, but questions raised

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:32 -0400

Having started its ‘free' music service only 12 months ago, Spotify has unveiled a milestone deal with TeliaSonera that will enable the telco's subscribers to access the music service using their PCs, TVs or mobile phones. Spotify said that the two-year contract would see TeliaSonera launch a specific mobile phone (said to be under development by INQ) within the next few months to support the Spotify service.

"I can say that we are really glad to work with Spotify. The main idea of this deal is that we found a service that meets our customers' demands," said Stefan Trampus, TeliaSonera's head of broadband services in Sweden. However, Trampus also admitted that the service should also attract new customers as well as acting on building subscriber loyalty.

Currently, the Spotify application runs on the iPhone, Android and Symbian S60 platforms, and generates around a third of all digital music sales in Sweden. Around 5.5 million people worldwide currently use the music service, according to TeliaSonera.

However, a war-of-words has broken out following a plea by Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, claiming that the music industry had to fundamentally change the way it charged for tracks. Ek has called for music labels to stop the practice whereby Spotify had to pay them a fee every time a track was played. Instead, he said the future lay in a system where money was made through different routes, such as music downloads, advertising, merchandise and tickets to live events.

While Spotify's catalogue is fast approaching the size of Apple's iTunes, Dan Nash, a senior executive at Napster, has responded by asking where will Spotify be a year from now with its free service? "All these ad-supported models have burned out already; why is Spotify going to be any different?"

For more on this story:
TechCrunch and The Times

3UK and Spotify close to mobile music service agreement

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:12:21 -0400

The UK's smallest, but most innovative, mobile operator - 3, is close to agreeing a deal to distribute Spotify's streaming music service to the operator's 4.4 million subscribers. If the negotiations are successful, then 3 could be seen as again out manoeuvring its much larger (and slower moving) UK competitors, and gaining Spotify's free music service to use as a customer acquisition and loyalty tool.

According to insiders, 3 is considering a variety of potential deployments for Spotify, including pre-loading the app onto new handsets and making it available to download for 3's existing subscribers.

The UK operator has a track-record of working closely with digital service providers, and perhaps recognises that it might be troublesome for Spotify to establish a partnership with another operator because of their existing commercial agreements with other music service providers, such as O2 and Apple. Ongoing speculation has surrounded Spotify's submission of its iPhone app to Apple last month, with some observers predicting it would be blocked because of fears it will cannibalise iTunes' sales of digital downloads.

An indication of Spotify's mobile music intentions became apparent in March this year when it initiated a campaign to look for mobile apps developers for the iPhone, S60 and Google Android platform.

For more on this story:
NMA

Orange: Using free music downloads to attract youth market

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:39:25 -0400

Orange and Universal music have launched a music streaming service that aims to attract subscribers and reduce piracy. The new ‘Monkey' service is targeted at 16-24-year-olds who don't own 3G handsets or have mobile Internet packages but it will provide users who top up €1.16 each month with 600 minutes of music streaming.

According to Pippa Dunn, director of pay-as-you-go at Orange, the company is funding the service as an acquisition tool, similar to its successful two-for-one cinema offer ‘Orange Wednesdays', which it hopes will result in increased top-ups and long-term loyalty. "It's a great opportunity to acquire an audience that will increase their average spend and represent the future of our pay-monthly business too."

Universal Music said it considered Monkey a valuable weapon in the war on piracy as it looks to meet Digital Britain's target of reducing piracy levels by 70 per cent within the next two years. Rob Wells, VP of digital for Universal Music International, said, "It's essentially a piracy play. A large proportion of the demographic this is aimed at aren't spending a great deal on legitimate music."

Commenting on the launch, Ovum said that Monkey was well positioned on basic low cost phones at a time when Spotify was still waiting to sign with Apple's and Google's high-end smartphones that target a slightly older, wealthier consumer.

However, the research firm added that the immediate problems for Orange following this announcement will be to persuade the other three major music labels to join Universal on Monkey, as well as persuading online Spotify users to sign up or stay with Orange instead of saving up for a Spotify-compatible phone.

For more on this story:
NMA and Mobile Choice

One million Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handsets sold in 3 weeks

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:28:21 -0500

Whilst Nokia might be cutting production on some of its high-end phones, it's 5800 XpressMusic handset has proved a hit with sales of over 1 million worldwide in the space of three weeks. The device, Nokia's first real touchscreen phone, comes 15 months after the iPhone demonstrated there was a market for such a phone--albeit that the original Apple handset took over two months to break through the 1 million barrier.

The company has already unveiled a cut-down version of the 5800, the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic, which will likely be priced around €200 and is said to be slightly slimmer than the 5800, but able to store up to 3000 music tracks using a 4GB memory card.

The 5800 should be released in the US by late February, although whether it will boost overall sales might be in question given its US$400 price tag. Nokia has yet to announce which US mobile operator will offer the 5800 XpressMusic, and its success may rely on how operator's position Nokia's "Comes With Music" service to compete with the popular iTunes service from Apple.

For more on this story:
T3, Stuff.Tv and Wired

Related stories:
Has Nokia snubbed European operators over Tube/5800 launch date?
GyPSii adds support for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Cracked: Nokia's Comes with Music DRM
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic gets FCC approval

Music downloads: up to 10 euros per track, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:14:09 -0500

While some mobile operators in Europe may charge as little as €0.75 to download a music track, new research indicates that data pricing varies so significantly between operators and countries that the consumer can end up paying up to €10 for each downloaded song.

A study, carried out on behalf of mBlox, claimed that the UK was the most expensive country to download a music track, with France not far behind, and Germany being the cheapest by some considerable margin. The loophole for operators, seemingly, is within the small print outlining ‘fair usage' within the T&Cs, effectively enabling operators to charge much higher rates.

According to Andrew Bud, chairman of mBlox, next year could be the pivotal year for rich mobile content. "But for this to happen, consumers need a transparent pricing mechanism to purchase rich content. Content providers need to be sure that their consumers are treated fairly," he said. "The current hope that flat-rate data will be the total solution is fundamentally flawed as market penetration is not high enough nor is it likely to be for some considerable time."

"To rebuild consumer trust and unlock the potential of the mobile content industry, we need to complement flat rate schemes with a 'sender-pays' business model, which ensures that the sender is able to purchase data at a wholesale cost and consequently offer fair and transparent pricing to consumers," concluded Bud.

For more:
- go to Cellular News

Related articles:
Nokia's Comes with Music--an operator turnoff
Study: Consumers favor all-you-can-eat mobile music offers

Rumour mill: Nokia's Comes with Music, Films and Games

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:22:19 -0500

Unlimited music downloads have scored a considerable hit since their launch earlier this year. Wanting to build on this success, Nokia is thought to be putting together an unlimited download package of movies and N-Gage titles that could be launched during the first half of 2009.

Whilst unlimited downloads of games might not set Nokia's world alight--given the tough year the mobile games industry has experienced--when the same concept is applied to movies consumer interest could be sparked. One potential video provider, Disney, has commented that their content would be perfect for a bundled subscription offer.

Prior to any of this happening, it would appear Nokia will need to improve the quality of its Comes with Music handsets, in particular the 5610 XpressMusic cellphone which has temporarily been withdrawn from sale by T-Mobile. The operator said that some of the phones had a defective component that may cause the LED display to malfunction. Nokia has yet to publicly confirm there is a problem.

For more on this story go to:
stuff.tv and Register Hardware

Related articles:
Nokia's Comes with Music--an operator turnoff
Nokia reshapes mobile music

Rumour mill: Orange/Nokia in talks over Comes with Music

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:04:13 -0400

Having been a fierce opponent in the past to Nokia's efforts to break into the mobile music arena, Orange has now admitted to ongoing negotiations with Nokia regarding the Comes with Music (CWM) service.

While no agreement is in place today, Orange admitted it was aware that Carphone Warehouse was currently selling CWM prepay and pay-monthly handsets with Orange Sims in their stores. A quick decision is expected given that Nokia used this weekend to launch a multi-million Euro pre-Christmas campaign to promote CWM using major TV channels and print media.

3UK already sells CWM on the Nokia N95 8GB with 300 minutes and texts for €45 per month, and would be the only operator to benefit from Nokia's marketing campaign--something that Nokia would want to avoid and Orange would wish to gain from.

But Nokia's chance of gaining Orange as a reseller of its music service looks likely to be disrupted following the agreement by EMI, Warner Music and indie label Beggars Group to launch their own service offering unlimited music downloads for €130. The new service, Datz Music Lounge, can be played on any mobile phone or portable music player. Like Nokia's offering, subscribers will be given access to it for a year and keep all the music they download.

For more on this story go to:
Brand Republic and Mobile Today

Related articles:
Operators shun Nokia's Comes With Music service. Comes with music story
Nokia reshapes mobile music. Editorial

Rumour Mill: Has Nokia snubbed European operators over Tube/5800 launch date?

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:16:16 -0400

The European launch of Nokia's high-profile 5800 XpressMusic handset (more commonly known as the 'Tube') has slipped from Q4 until sometime early next year.

However, the 5800 will be launched in emerging markets such as India, Russia, Asia and the Middle East sometime during Q4. This move by Nokia, which has surprised many European observers, has prompted speculation that the company felt snubbed following the resistance by the major mobile operators to offer Nokia's Comes with Music service.

What seems likely to happen in Europe is that Nokia will launch the 5800 exclusively with Orange in February 2009 given that this operator lacks the iPhone, the Android G1 or the new Blackberry Storm. Nokia has commented that the 5800 will be provided SIM-free for around €250.

The deal that Orange has signed with Nokia has not provided them with an iPhone-killer outside of its home French market. Whilst lauded by many anti-iPhone commentators for its touchscreen interface and focus on mobile music, Nokia has made clear that 2009 will see the launch of a handset better able to compete with Apple's iPhone device.

For more on this story:
- go to The Register and trusted reviews

Related articles:
Operators shun Nokia's Comes With Music service. Nokia story
Nokia's Comes with Music--an operator turnoff. Nokia story

Nokia's Comes with Music--an operator turnoff

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:19:48 -0400

Nokia's glitzy launch in London of its Comes with Music service will have pleased music lovers and the gadget press alike, but UK mobile operators have expressed their displeasure by vowing not to sell the service over their networks.

While these operators will closely monitor this free music download service, their refusal to cooperate with Nokia stems from two, significant issues. Firstly, Nokia is insisting upon a profit-sharing deal albeit that operators can see little margin in selling the handset. Secondly, the operators will be saddled with much increased network traffic caused by the unlimited downloads associated with the service. The fear is that this could run into several Gigabytes per month per handset, which could cripple operators' existing data networks.

Insisting that the situation was not all gloom, Nokia claims to be negotiating with several operators in the hope it can sign several deals in time for Christmas. However, given the majority of the larger European operators already have, or are planning, a music download service, Nokia's Comes with Music can only be seen as a threat. The market research firm CCS Insight said it expected some operators to participate in the new service, but only if it proves popular and draws in new subscribers.

This resistance by UK operators could well be echoed by their counterparts in Europe and the US. Nokia's Ovi service, an umbrella concept for mobile Internet, has also experienced pushback from the operator community not wanting the handset giant to cream off revenues they strongly maintain belong to them.

However, a recent study by market researcher TNS Technology revealed that people aged 16 to 64 wanted to download 64 music tracks a month--which, on a yearly basis, equates to over £600, making the Comes with Music service at £130 look more of an attractive proposition.

For more on this story:
- go to IT Proportal

Related articles:
Study: Consumers favor all-you-can-eat mobile music offers. Study
500 million mobile users in India by 2010, predicts Nokia.n Nokia story

Operators shun Nokia's Comes With Music service

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:54:06 -0400

Mobile operators have greeted the arrival of Nokia's Comes With Music service with huge disinterest, with only the retailer Carphone Warehouse in the UK having signed to market the service.

The lack of uptake by operators -- none in the UK have indicated firm interest -- is likely caused by these firms having spent time and effort building their own music download services. Nokia's 'free' music service, along with its Ovi portal, are perceived as threats by network operators looking to position themselves as content providers.

Passing comment on the Nokia offering, O2's head of content, Antony Douglas, said: "We will keep an eye on it; if it is a huge success, we will renew our position. We will focus on existing services, but if Nokia does something compelling that is good for our customers, we will work with it."

Defending its position, the MD of Nokia UK, Simon Ainslie, said Nokia was not out of place with the new service and pointed to Apple and BlackBerry as manufacturers already working as service providers. "The business model has changed. Apple already has an established portal."

To add spice to this uncomfortable situation, speculation has arisen over the future possibility of Nokia handsets (those running S60) supporting iTunes. This would also, apparently, include the iStore application enabling users to download music directly to the handset. An outlandish story, but given the trouble with the Comes With Music service, almost anything is possible.

For more on this story:
- go to Mobile News and Cnet

Related articles:
Sony Ericsson mulling unlimited music service. SE music service story
Nokia looks to services for future revenues. Nokia services story