undersound

undersound is a new type of experience, an interface that is on your mobile phone and in the underground stations you pass through every day. [via we-make-money-not-art.com]

undersound will be spatially distributed at individual stations and throughout the wider tube network. You can add music to the system at upload points in the ticket halls, and you can download tracks on the platforms.

Each track in the undersound system will be tagged with its place of origin (the station where it was uploaded) and this information is visible as the track is being played. This may trigger memories and musings around your personal relationship to that place.

While in the carriages of the tube, you can browse undersound music of other people in range.

Because the system will be gathering metadata on the stations where the track has been (via uploading/downloading at the transfer points) and thus its spread within the network, the time it has been in the system, the number of times it has been played, the number of people who have played it, and so on, you will be able to see this information when you look at other people's music.

You can browse through other's tracks anonymously, but if you decide to download a song from someone else an alert will be triggered on their phone letting them know that you are grabbing one of their tracks.

Melodeo's mobile phone P2P to launch

The world's first legal mobile phone peer-to-peer (P2P) music sharing service, which lets users download full tracks and swap them with friends, will be launched in Europe this month. The Guardian reports.

"In December, the Spanish operator Telefonica licensed a mobile music solution with Melodeo, a US-based company delivering music software to mobile phones, and the P2P service will soon launch in Spain. Mobile phone operators will offer it to UK users within three months, with the US to follow.

Melodeo has also signed the industry's first global licensing agreement with Warner Music Group for full-length music tracks to be downloaded to mobiles.

The technology is similar to online P2P music services. Once users have the Melodeo Music Solution software on their mobiles, they can search an on-phone catalogue of up to 10,000 songs. If they find one they like, they purchase the full track and download it from their mobile network. The cost of the track is charged to their monthly phone bill or, if they are pre-pay customers, deducted from their credit.

Users can beam the track via Bluetooth to friends, who can hear a 30-second preview and also buy it. Their mobile phone operator sends it to them and manages the payment".

Previous articles on Melodo:

- Legal music file sharing launched for mobiles

- Full Track Downloads to Mobile Phones

- Melodeo

Song Sharing for Your Cell Phone

The recording industry is hoping to enlist millions of new distributors -- its listeners, according to Business2.0.

"EMI and Sony are considering services that blend file sharing with viral marketing. Called super-distribution, the technology lets users download digital content to their cell phones and forward it to friends.

"Have a hip-hop MP3 you like? Send it to your pals, who get to hear it once for free. For a few bucks, they can keep it and share it again. Fans become evangelists, and labels get another bite at the $30 billion digital-music pie. "A friend's recommendation far outweighs an ad," says EMI senior VP Ted Cohen.

Trials with Vodafone and TeliaSonera will begin this spring in the United Kingdom and Finland.

The carriers and labels still have to work out thorny issues such as digital rights management and revenue splits. But by the time this hits the States, as early as 2006, everyone should be singing the same tune."

Ring rage on the rise

Irritating mobile phone ringtones have triggered workplace bans and even $5 fines for workers who breach the no-phone rule, reports The Australian News.

"An Australian Human Resource Institute report found that 54 per cent of employers preferred workers' mobile phones to be set to "non-intrusive" ringtones, or vibrating mode.

Nine per cent wanted use of mobile phones limited to personal emergencies and another 9 per cent wanted the phones banned outright during working hours.

And a Melbourne tyre manufacturer, South Pacific Tyres, banned the use of mobile phones by employees earlier this month. Workers who disobeyed the ban would reportedly be stood down immediately".

TunA Lets Users Fish for Music

The future of on-the-go peer-to-peer music sharing is already starting to groove in Ireland, according to Wired.

"Media Lab Europe, research partner to MIT Media Lab, is testing tunA, a software application that employs Wi-Fi to locate nearby users, peek at their music playlist and wirelessly jack into their audio stream. Pronounced like the fish and signifying music "tunes" and "ad hoc" file sharing, tunA is being designed for wireless PDAs, cell phones and even its own hardware device.

TunA alleviates the alienation of using a Walkman, and it makes it more of a social experience. You can listen to your music and still open yourself up to people around you," said research fellow Arianna Bassoli, who masterminded the project late last year after researching the way young people in Dublin interact -- or don't -- in public spaces."

Phones Could Take P2P Legit

Eric Lin for TheFeature.com, comments on previous news story about major music labels launching a mobile song-swapping technology. He points out that "the service, exclusively for mobile phones, allows peers to trade files, but requires a central server to unlock them before they can be used. And as mobile users are already accustomed to paying for content, creating a p2p system should be met with little resistance, making publishers happy without upsetting users too much".