Sony BMG

T-Mobile and Nokia sign web collaboration deal

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

European cell phone users could benefit from a deal struck between T-Mobile and Nokia to offer faster and easier access to all of T-Mobile's Web'n'walk Internet services as well as Nokia's Ovi web tool. The hopes are that the collaboration deal will bring more consumers to mobile Internet communities, which includes T-Mobile's MyFaves service--already available to T-Mobile customers--as well as offering more web-enabled tools to people on the go. The agreement could bring to a close a period in which mobile network operators, notably T-Mobile, have been at odds with handset makers over which is the best place to provide such services.

Nokia said it would modify its handsets to integrate T-Mobile services, which the company claims fit well with Ovi. Nokia launched its Ovi platform last year and has since signed deals with music industry companies including Sony BMG and Universal Music as well as other European mobile operators that include Vodafone, Telefonia, Telecom Italia Mobile and France Telecom's Orange mobile unit.

For more on this story:
- read Easy Bourse and Yahoo Finance

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Nokia races to sign major music labels

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

As a critical element of its push into mobile services, Nokia claims it is confident about securing deals with the world's leading record companies ahead of launching its flagship 'Comes With Music' service for handsets later this year.

The company is thought to be in the final round of negotiations with Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music, plus around 10 independent music labels, that will provide users of certain Nokia handsets with the option of purchasing the music tracks from these content owners.

"We have negotiations and discussions ongoing with all the majors and a number of indies as well," commented Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice-president. "Certainly our target is to have other labels on board."

Nokia said it is talking to the music companies about a revenue sharing agreement for Comes With Music, and Mr. Vanjoki said similar arrangements might be possible with some mobile operators. He highlighted the potential for the operators to share revenue derived from transactions resulting from Comes With Music, such as sales of T-shirts that feature people's favourite artists.

For more on this story:
- read The Financial Times

Sony Ericsson joins the music bandwagon

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:59:00 -0500

In an effort to stay within hearing distance of the many other mobile music announcements, Sony Ericsson has revamped its Playnow music store to allow subscribers access to a greatly expanded range of content, discoverable through features such as TrackID, which allows users to search for songs using snippets of lyrics.

Sony Ericsson said that it plans to have a new mobile music service up and running by the second quarter of next year. This would be a big step from the phone manufacturer's current platform, which only gives users access to downloads of Sony BMG music.

Sony says it has already received support from EMI Group, Universal Music and Warner Music. "The situation today is that we have offers on the table of five million music tracks, as a first step, from all the majors, as well as local and independent labels," said Sony Ericsson head of content acquisition, Martin Blomkvist.

Consumers will be able to access the Playnow service from their mobile phone and their PC, enabling over the air downloads to the phone or side loading of content from PC to mobile. The majority of the music catalogue will be offered in DRM-free format, the company said.

For more about this story:
- read these articles from TomsHardware.co.uk and Telecoms.com

SPOTLIGHT: Vodafone offers unlimited downloads

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:59:52 -0400

Vodafone UK is offering customers unlimited access to over a million tracks from all the major record labels, as well as leading independents, on a range of new handsets for Christmas. Through an exclusive agreement with Omnifone, Vodafone will roll out their MusicStation service, giving customers the ability to download tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group direct to their handsets.