Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition

Nokia today announced the latest addition to its family of "Active" phones with the introduction of the Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition .

Adding to the well-received concept of the Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition is enhanced with a 512 MB microSD card for enjoying up to 375 songs, as well as a fitness carrying strap, bicycle holder and sports headset packed in a new energetic color.

"Music is a great source of energy and inspiration for many - during a workout, a fitness routine, or just relaxing," says Antti Koivula, Director of Lifestyle Products at Nokia.

The innovative carrying strap of the Nokia 5500 Sport Music Edition allows it to be worn around the waist or strapped around an arm to ensure that the handset stays in place, even during vigorous exercise. The sports headset also offers handsfree convenience for music and conversation with an anatomically engineered, over-the-ear design.

[Nokia Press Release]

Britain's mobile phone ringtone boom has come to an end

Britain's mobile phone ringtone boom has come to an end, at least that what a leading market research group, MusicAlly, and Universal Music are saying. The Telegraph reports.

"Industry watcher MusicAlly.c predicts that the ringtone market will shrink for the first time ever this year. It forecasts that within four years, turnover will be just £78m ($147m), less than half last year's total.

The research was borne out by comments yesterday from Universal Music UK, which admitted it had seen its first decline in revenue from ringtones over the past six months. Ringtone revenue growth had raised hopes both for mobile operators - struggling to make a return on investments in 3G - and for record companies, in their efforts to offset falling revenues caused by piracy.

Both Universal and MusicAlly said last year's controversy surrounding hidden subscription charges for certain ringtone services was partly to blame."

... Steve Mayall, of MusicAlly, said another reason for the ringtone decline was the growing ease with which people could ''sideload" songs from a computer to a mobile at no cost."

Related:

-- Ringtone growth standstill blamed on Crazy Frog

-- Refunds ordered over Crazy Frog

-- Crazy Frog Cleans Up its Subscription Services

-- Watchdog kicks Crazy Frog ad outside kids' viewing time

-- Probe launched into "Crazy Frog" sales tactics

-- That Crazy Frog: The Dark Side

Artists can sign up with textango and let people buy their music by SMS

Justin Oberman on mopocket has written up a fabulous new service called Textango , which allows any artist to sell their music via text message to anyone in the US with a cell phone.

This gives the artist the ability to sell music to anyone on the spot, on or off the computer. Textango takes what artists do best -- play music and promote, and translates it into sales for the artist.

How does it work?

Once artists have their keyword, they are free to sell music via text message. They can sell singles, EPs or whole albums.

Fans simply text the artists keyword to short code number 23333. They automatically receive a text message back that offers them the artist's music. They reply with a Y if they would like to buy the music, and the purchase is immediately charged to their cell phone bills."

Cellphone Concertino Video thanks to the NY Times

The New York Times offers a video of the Concertino for Cellular Phones and Symphony Orchestra by David N. Baker, held October lst in Chicago and explains just how the audience was asked to participate.

"A device similar to a traffic light signaled the audience members to activate their rings — red for the balcony, green for the orchestra seats — at various points in the piece. An assistant conductor, Terrance Gray, followed the score and activated the lights.

Four amplified mobile phones were onstage. One, operated by a teaching assistant at Indiana, Aaron Vandermeer, was programmed with Mr. Baker’s main tune and well-known classical themes like the “William Tell” gallop and a motif from the last movement of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. The other three cellphonists onstage played random rings, sometimes timed to destroy a pastoral melody here or there.

Mr. Freeman held a brief practice session before the downbeat. “You may use as much imagination or as little as you like,” he said.

... During the performance, some in the audience held up their phones and waved them back and forth, as if to make themselves heard. Little squares of light from the phone screens studded the hall at Dominican University, one of the homes of the Sinfonietta. But the audience cellphonists seemed to lose steam toward the end of the piece, and the orchestra occasionally drowned out their rings. Organizers hoped that the sound would be better the next night, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago."

Just for the record, as this is loudly being touted as the first such performance of its kind, with the audience buzzing "we made history", it was not a first.

Dialtones Symphony was the first very ringtone concert. It was conducted by Golan Levin and performed in September 2001 at the Brucknerhaus Auditorium in Linz, Austria. The 28-minute concert was produced through the ringing of 200 visitors' phones. And there have been others since:

-- Links in Ringtonia to ringtone concerts and symphonies

-- An Informal Catalogue of Mobile Phone Performances, Installations and Artworks - through 2002

Napster Launches Music Downloads Site For DoCoMo

According to Moco News, Napster launched a music download site for Japan in partnership with Tower Records.

Users pay $16.80 per month for unlimited downloads out of a catalogue of 1.5 million tracks. Downloads are only compatible with certain MP3 players including some Sony and Toshiba models.

... NTT DoCoMo also offers a Napster-compatible phone. KDDI currently leads the Japanese music downloads market, reflecting the bigger trend of downloading to a phone rather than a PC. Apple is already in the Japanese market with a catalog of around two million.

Motorola Debuts Pre-Release Deal With Sony BMG

The deal between J/Arista Records and Motorola's iRadio service to "leak" albums early debuted this week with the new record by R&B singer Monica, reports FMQB .

"As part of the new initiative, J Records leaked songs from Monica's new album, The Makings Of Me, via Motorola mobile handsets on Monday, the day before it was released in stores.

Users could hear tracks from the new CD on iRadio's Sony BMG music channel, which is featured at the top of the iRadio deck. "

Cingular Adds Podcasts To Service Offerings

Cingular has signed up Melodeo to offer podcasts to its customers.

The Mobilcast will cost Cingular customers $4.99 per month to access a catalog of select podcasts, updated hourly. Podcasts will come from NPR, NYT, CBS, FOX, MSNBC as well as independent podcasters.

[via [via Moco News]