Luciano Pavarotti - real music tones

The world has lost one of it's greatest tenors. Luciano Pavarotti has just died.

US Mobile subscribers can download some of his music here, from Decca Label.

Beyond Ringtones? Flycell Takes a Shot

Flycell today announced a deal with Universal Music Group to provide MP3-quality ringtones from Akon and other artists, reports Wired blog.

But Flycell, a major ringtone vendor, is looking to expand its reach beyond an arena crowded with competitors ranging from Yahoo and MTV.com to smaller outfits including FreeRingers.net, Jamster, Zingy, Modtones, Dada Mobile and Thumbplay.

The new initiative, tagged Flycell 2.0, targets the 14 to 25 demographic.

"This is a natural evolution for us," CEO Alberto Montesisaid. "Ringtone is still going to be a big chunk of our business but now, or example, when you buy a 'Truetone,' then you're going to have also attached to the ringtone a full track download for your computer or your Ipod. It's going to be very interesing for us to see how that develops."

Mastertones ring up profits

According to USAToday, the music industry is gleefully embracing the ringtone revolution, now powering into its second phase as mastertones replace polyphonique ringtones.

"This week, Nielsen RingScan unveils its mastertone sales data, and Billboard publishes its inaugural mastertone chart, a clear indication of the song snippet's stature.

...With Informa Telecoms and Media projecting a $6.8 billion mastertone business by 2010, labels are salivating over profit and promotional opportunities.

In recognition of the mastertone's commercial and cultural clout, the Recording Industry Association of America, which has certified album sales for 47 years, recently introduced Master Ringtone Sales Awards by inaugurating 128 gold and platinum artists."

Verizon debuts John Legend album

Verizon Wireless is making several full-songs and music videos from the new John Legend album "Once Again" available exclusively on the VCast Music service, almost two months before the album's Oct. 24 street date, reports FierceMobile Content.

More in Full press release.

Verizon Wireless V CAST Musicwill feature several of John Legend's new songs as exclusive offers for customers to download as full length songs, ring tones and Ringback Tones for the next two months. John Legend's new album, "Once Again," will not hit stores or Web music retailers until October 24, so the only place to hear or view John Legend's new music is through Verizon Wireless.

Warner Music inks licensing deal with Russian wireless carrier

Warner Music International has licensed songs from its catalog of music by Madonna, Green Day and other artists to Moscow-based mobile carrier VimpelCom Group, informs The Mercury News.

The deal appears to be the first of its kind to involve a major Western record label and a Russian mobile operator. VimpelCom boasts more than 50 million subscribers. It provides mobile service in Russia as well as Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia.

As part of the deal, VimpelCom will have a five-month exclusive to sell ringtones, video clips, full-track downloads and other content from Madonna.

The Russian mobile music market represents a safer bet for record companies, who have seen sales sapped by digital piracy on online file-sharing networks or Web sites that make songs available for free or well below cost, but without permission.

The nature of mobile networks makes them far harder to hack than Internet-based networks.

Bands Can Make Indie Ringtones

Independent bands can make their own ringtones that will actually be easy to access. Through MixerTags, bands can sell (or give for free) their own ringtones directly through their blog, website or MySpace profile, informs New Music First.

Pick the music file , add some basic information to identify it, such as artist, title, and genre, and in return musicains get a MyxerTag™ - a simple HTML snippet - to put in the website, MySpace profile, or blog. After that, website visitors can click the MyxerTag™ and enter their phone number to get the ringtone.

Related:

-- Cingular, MySpace, InfoSpace join as ringtone providers.

Eminem bid to block net ringtones

Rap star Eminem's publishing companies have gone to court to stop his songs being sold as ringtones over the internet. Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated are seeking a court order against five companies in the US District Court, informs On Air Mag.

Lawyers also plan to sue karaoke firms that fail to obtain proper licences. "This is big business," said Howard Hertz, lawyer for the publishing companies. "We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."

It's 50 Cent Calling. Collect!

This year, enough mobile phone users downloaded musical tones to rack up retail sales of about $602 million in the US, more than double the $277 million racked up in 2004, reports The New York Times

While the structure of a deal for the ringtone of a song can vary widely depending on the label and mobile service carrier, here is how a sale of "Candy Shop" (by 50 Cents, one of the biggest sellers this year) might break down, based on a retail price of $2.50:

CARRIER Provides the customers; transmits the tones on its network; licenses songs from the music companies; and sometimes pays for advertising. A carrier typically receives about $1.12, or 45 percent.

RECORD LABEL Provides the actual song recording. With "Candy Shop," the label must split its share with Dr. Dre and Eminem, who have stakes in 50 Cent's recordings. The parent label receives about $1, or 40 percent of the total, and out of that pays the artist a royalty. At an estimated 18 percent royalty, 50 Cent would receive about 29 cents.

MUSIC PUBLISHER Licenses the composition on behalf of the songwriter. "Candy Shop" was co-written by 50 Cent and the producer Scott Storch. Universal Music Publishing, which administers 50 Cent's songs, and TVT Music Publishing, which handles Mr. Storch's, split the publisher's cut and then pay their writers. The publishers collectively receive about 25 cents, or 10 percent. The writers are each estimated to receive between 9 cents and 11 cents.

PERFORMANCE SOCIETY Collects money for songwriters when their works are played publicly. The one that represents 50 Cent would receive an estimated 3.5 percent of the total, or roughly 9 cents.

Since the most popular ringtones can sell more than 1 million units apiece, a hit single should generate at least enough to pay a couple of months' worth of phone bills.

Verizon plans to offer mobile music downloads

Verizon Wireless will introduce a music download service next month that will let subscribers purchase music wirelessly over their mobile phones and transfer songs between their phones and Windows PCs, CNET News.com has learned, announces CNet.

The V Cast Music service would offer songs from artists on major music labels. Verizon expects to offer more than a million songs by spring.

Through a partnership with Microsoft, the V Cast Music service allows customers to transfer music between Windows PCs and mobile phones. Verizon says it's the only wireless services company in the U.S. to offer that feature.

Eminem CD release includes ringtone store

The mobile music campaign created for the release of Eminem's greatest hits CD, "Curtain Call," by Interscope Records and Universal Music Mobile marks the first time UMM has offered digital initiatives such as "gifting" ringtones and launched a global ringtone store for a release, writes DETnews.

The application allows users to send mastertones to a friend by visiting www.eminem.com/mobile or by text messaging a code. The Web site features mobile products such as mastertones, wallpapers and exclusive voicetones.

3 makes mobile music available on PCs

Until now, customers buying tracks on their mobiles have not been able to access their music on other devices. With Mobile network 3's new ‘dual download’ service customers who buy their music over the air will also able to get a copy of their track online, for no extra charge, reports Netimperative.

They can then play it on their laptop or PC, transfer it onto an MP3 player, or burn it onto a CD.

3 believe that offering dual downloading as standard will provide an additional incentive to encourage consumers to buy more of their digital music over mobile.

3’s music service will sell tracks at a flat rate of £1.50, with each track available on both mobiles and also as a PC download. Customers buying a track over the air will automatically be sent a text message with a PIN code to access the same track as a PC download.

Survey finds users don't want MP3 mobile phones

Mobile phone manufacturers and operators are spending millions making the latest mobile phones capable of becoming MP3 players in their own right. Yet a survey by Pocket-lint.co.uk suggest they might be wasting their money.

72% of the entrants said that even if they had the chance to listen to their favourite tracks on their mobile, they wouldn't bother.

There is some hope though. Of those that said they don't currently listen to music, 23% said that they would consider it with a further 5% not sure for the time being.

The survey was completed by 4,184 people from around the globe who visited Pocket-lint.co.uk in July.

Music downloads to phones dominate Japanese market

Music downloads via cell phones outpaced those to digital music players by a wide margin in Japan during the first six months of 2005, according to data released last week.

Cell phone downloads including complete songs and ring tone melodies totaled 108.9 million songs during the first half of the year and were worth ¥13.6 billion ($123 million as of June 30, the last day of the period). In contrast, legal music downloads from the Internet to devices like portable music players totaled 2.2 million songs and were worth ¥538.8 million during the same period.

Those figures mean cell phone downloads accounted for 98 percent of the market by song and 96 per cent by value during the first half.

The launch of Apple's iTunes Music Store in Japan on August 4 is likely to boost the Internet portion of the download market in the second half of the year. Their song sales had already hit 1 million tracks after four days of operation.

Usage is also growing at Mora, a download service operated by Sony Communication Network and many local record companies. After breaking the 100,000 song download per month barrier last year, the service saw around 450,000 downloads per month during the April to June period.

[via 3yen < Macworld]

Musicians go mobile to reach fans

Musicians are looking to mobile phones to reach fans directly, bypassing the record label, explains BBC News.

Artists such as Andy Cato see in mobile phones an opportunity to sell tracks to fans quickly, without relying on a record label. He has teamed up with O2 in the UK to offer tracks for download to mobiles. It means he will get a far greater share of the revenues, which will be shared with the operator.

"With labels, it is impossible to calculate how much you get per song," he explained. "When you do, you weep."

Cato is going to offer two tracks a week for download to mobiles from Friday 8 July, costing £1 each.

"What appeals in terms of dance music is the speed of the turnaround," he said, recalling the early days of dance music when new tunes made their way to the clubs within days of being produced. "Working on a new track on a Monday and releasing it on a Friday is an adrenaline-fuelled way of working."

Unlike other tracks offered by the O2 music service, Andy Cato's tunes will not have any digital rights protection so fans will be able to transfer them without constraints to a PC or burn them to a CD.

The whole mobile industry seems to be making plans to jump on the digital music bandwagon. Sony Ericsson has joined forces with Napster to develop a service for mobiles. And Motorola has partnered with Apple to create a mobile tied in to iTunes, while handset manufacturers such as Nokia are working on mobiles designed for digital entertainment.

But analysts say that mobile phones still have some way to go before they replace more established music players like the iPod.

Why hip-hop tops the ringtone pops

The former owner of the successful US hip-hop music label Def Jam, Russell Simmons, tells The Guardian about his successful formula when it comes to selling ringtones.

Last year, Simmons, known as the godfather of hip-hop, launched Def Jam Mobile in the US, offering mobile services, such as a hip-hop news service and hip-hop e-greeting cards as well as polyphonic ringtones, mobile street games and wallpaper. He sees hip-hop music and mobiles living in perfect harmony. "Hip- hop artists are not only good at branding the technology and making it cool, but as the new technology comes out they are the first to play with it," he says.

Hip-hop and urban music has featured heavily in the weekly ringtone chart in the UK. Simmons' plan is to bring his Def Jam Mobile services over from the US to make the most of the European hip hop scene and he also plans to sign new artists to RSMG. "In America, 80% of the people who buy hip-hop are not African American," says Simmons. "What's special about hip-hop to me is that it's poor people of all colours - in fact, there aren't enough white rappers; we need poor white kids from the trailer parks talking about their struggle because there's a connection with black kids in the projects."

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, ringtones are worth almost $5bn and this could rise to nearly $7bn in five years. The UK ringtone business is expected to top £100m this year. Simmons expects to be at the heart of such growth figures and the phone carriers are keen to figure out ways of earning extra income with him. But it is not only content that makes Simmons's entertainment products and ideas so attractive in the new media marketplace, it is also the fact that the music he represents is a strong fashion statement among youth, just like mobile phones.

Related:
-- Hip hop-ify your cell phone.

EMI inks mobile music deal with Melodeo

Mobile music provider melodeo has secured a deal with EMI Music to make 200,000 full track mobile downloads available to mobile users in Europe, reports Netimperative.

"Seattle-based Melodeo provides music to subscribers through its “Mobile Music Solution”, which resides directly on the user's phone allowing them to shop, preview, purchase and download full-length music tracks.

The new deal will give Melodeo access to EMI's catalogue, which will include tracks from music acts such as Athlete, Coldplay, Faith Evans, Gorillaz, Norah Jones, Kylie Minogue, Joss Stone and Robbie Williams."

MusicKube Launches SongLink'd Service

MusiKube, an NYC-based mobile music recognition company, has launched its consumer service, called SongLink'd. It works similar to what other music recognition technology/services like Shazam work… [via MocoNews]

"Cost: it's 99 cents per song. The charges will show up on your cell phone bill. But there's no cost if the service can't ID your song… "

Mobile music challenges 'iPod age'

Full-length music downloads on mobile phones have not taken off so quickly - held back by technical challenges as well as issues over music availability, reports the BBC. But the mobile music industry is confident that the days of dedicated MP3 players are numbered.

Gilles Babinet, chief executive of mobile music firm MusiWave, said: "Music downloads on mobiles have the potential to be the biggest-ever medium for music."

But there are hurdles to overcome.

Mobile phones offer limited storage for music - certainly nothing to rival Apple's 60GB iPod.

But the first mobile phones with hard disk players will be on the market soon and the current generation of mobiles using flash technology can store up to one gigabyte of music - enough for 250 songs.

One of the key elements of the Nokia and Microsoft deal is the agreed ability to transfer songs between a handset and a PC. The seamless experience of mobiles and PC downloads is approaching.

Mr Babinet said: "Today you use radio and TV to discover music. Tomorrow you will discover and consume music via one device - the mobile."

New Order promos album with free ringtones

Warner Bros Records is teaming up with mobile marketing technology company Hyperptag to promote the latest New Order album, offering fans free mobile content at HMV stores, reports Netimperative.

"Warner Bros will use Hypertag technology to promote the launch of "Waiting for the Sirens Call", the first studio album from New Order since 2001.

The campaign will see Hypertag units installed into the New Order window displays of the HMV stores in London's Oxford Street, and Market Steet in Manchester in the week running up to the launch of the album on 28 March.

Consumers who interact with the tag will receive free music clips, ringtones or wallpaper, depending on their phone-capability. The campaign represents the first time such technology has been used by the music industry to promote an album release.

Hypertags are short-range wireless devices, which send information to mobile phones via infra-red or Bluetooth. A user activates the infra-red or Bluetooth on their phone, holds it up to the Hypertag and receives content such as vouchers, business cards, ringtones or games.

Because Hypertags use short-range wireless technologies, rather than SMS, interactions are free to both brand and consumer".

A previous campaign involving ringtones and Hypertag:

-- Hypertag to hand out national and rugby anthem ringtones to fans - Mobile operator O2 has teamed up with technology company Hypertag to hand out national and rugby anthem ring-tones to fans at the 27 February England vs Ireland game in Dublin.

Ringtones being replaced by real music

The ringtone and cell phone music market is sometimes hard to understand and is well, mostly confusing. But here's a very good article by Canadian Canoe, summarizing how this business is evolving - with insight on why Canada has lagged behind so far.

"Ringtones and polyphonics are on the endangered-species list. In Europe and Asia for the past two years, and more recently in the U.S., the hot handset craze has been "truetones" -- clips of actual artists' recordings that play when you get a call.

[...] The stake that the record labels have in the ringtone boom is obvious. An industry that has been getting beaten up by free music downloading is looking to another digital mode as its salvation. As long as ringtones were merely beepy cover-versions, only songwriters stood to collect any royalties.

"Now artists, labels, producers ... all the people who normally get paid when things are sampled (on hip-hop songs) will now receive payment for ringtones," says Universal Music senior executive Erika Savage.

"What's very interesting is how certain songs catalogued have a brand new life when they come out as a Mastertone," Savage says. "Like Celebration by Kool &The Gang. That's a song we've seen have a brand new life in the U.S. and Europe as a ringtone, even though that band might not be selling CDs anymore. It really is a singles market.

Full Track Downloads to Mobile Phones

Melodeo, Inc. and Warner Music Group (WMG) announced the signing of the first global agreement which allows consumers to securely download entire tracks from WMG's rich music catalog directly to their mobile phones.

Select U.S. mobile phone operators will begin implementing the Melodeo mobile music solution in 2005, according to a company press release.

PluggedIn: Mobile Operators Seek Higher Sound Quality

There was a time when a cool ring tone just had to sound musical. Then phones starting ringing to the tune of a pop song, giving way to "ring songs," explains Reuters.

This month, KDDI started selling phones with the ability to download full songs over-the-air and listen to them at a higher quality than ever before.

"This is just the first step," said Tatsuo Yagi, assistant manager at KDDI. "The sound quality is still too inadequate to fully compete with music players." He added that its latest technology can produce the same quality of sound as an iPod, but the phones' amplifiers still have limitations.

NTT DoCoMo which, earlier this month, unveiled a new line of phones, which include compact disk quality "3D sound," is working on a 3D sound technology, which can make mobile phones produce sounds that appear to come from different directions.

In a museum, consumers would get commentaries on their phones as if they were coming from the artifacts themselves, or a business executive could be on a three-way conference call via mobile phone and the other participants' voices would appear to come from two different directions.

Analysts believe that this is a natural evolution for Japanese operators, who see 33 percent to 45 percent of all data usage from ring tones and screensavers.

KDDI alone sees about 10 million downloads per month of "ring songs," or ring tunes with vocal music. Its newest music download feature allows users to cut a segment of a song and designate it as a ring tone.

Warner music ringing up biz

Warner Music is getting is making a broad push into the ringtone biz, signing a deal with mobile technology company M-Qube to offer the cellular jingles directly to consumers, reports Variety.

"Comprehensive deal allows Warner to sell ringtones directly from its labels' websites and those it creates for artists. M-Qube's technology allows users to download ringtones directly to their phones and add the charge to their bill from any major cellular carrier.

Deal includes both instrumental ringtones and those made with master tracks that include artists' vocals.

While many labels offer ringtones on an ad-hoc basis through a number of different providers, this is the first comprehensive deal a U.S. label has signed to offer ringtones on all of its Web properties."

Cell phones take iPod challenge

When Gilles Babinet looks at a cell phone, he sees a music store, an iPod and even a nascent platform for a tiny-screened MTV, reports News.com via Agenda Inc..

"The curly-haired Parisian is the chairman and founder of musiwave, the company that powers Vodafone's new mobile phone music download service, which launched across Europe this week. He's sure that huge numbers of people will eventually find it natural to buy and listen to music on cell phones--but in some countries more than others.

The potential of mobile devices as a music delivery platform is clear. There are hundreds of millions of cell phone owners, particularly in European countries, where penetration rates can be as much 80 percent of the population. That pool represents a vastly larger potential market than the millions of people who use iPods or other MP3 players."

Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse to supply True Tones

Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse is currently negotiating with a major telecommunication network to supply Music True Tones (master recordings that can be downloaded and used as ringtones). The idea is to create two cataloguea of each 10-12 tones. The first will be called "Killer Riffs" and a second will be called "Sizzling Solos". [ via Ultimate Guitar ]

Let the music play

An interesting article from telecomasia.net thanks to Moco News.

"It's not hard to see why cellcos want in on the music download scene. We've known mucould be mobile since Sony invented the Walkman. And for all the hype over video being the big play for 3G, it doesn't translate nearly as well into a portable handheld format as music. We also know now that mobile users will pay for music-based content like ringtones, music video clips and even karaoke.

However, mobile's suitability for music content doesn't automatically guarantee success. DoCoMo has already learned this the hard way - its mobile download service will reportedly be discontinued later this year. The reason: it's just too expensive, especially in a market like Japan.

That's a market-specific business model issue, perhaps, but it illustrates the point that mobile music, like rock'n'roll, ain't easy - and not just because of the business side. Mobile music still faces a number of technical issues as well that are going to have to be dealt with before it reaches its potential.

Another issue is the device itself. Sorry, but as music players go, today's mobile phones can't hold a candle to the iPod. They don't have the storage capability or the battery life.

Storage and battery issues, for example, could be solved via removable flash memory and fuel cells. Until then, however, cellcos hoping to cash in on mobile music should think outside the box, because there's likely going to be more to mobile music than just download services.

Mobiles turn into video jukeboxes

A new "video jukebox service" will see full length music videos being beamed to mobile phone handsets, reports the BBC.

"Mobile phone network 3 has joined forces with major record label BMG to offer the service.

The videos will cost £1.50 each and will be available to stream or to download to the handset.

The service, which will offer BMG artists' videos four to six weeks in advance of singles being released, will be launched on 2 August.

3's chief operating officer Gareth Jones said: "From now on, the mobile phone will increasingly become the first place that music lovers will be able to see new music videos."

BBC Radio One presenter Zane Low will also present a weekly music show only available on 3 phones."

In a related article, Revolution Magazine, reports that Britney Spears, Outkast and Dido are amongst the first acts to be screened on third generation network 3's mobile Video Jukebox.

Shazam ties up with MTV Japan

MTV Japan, together with its mobile partner, Yamaha, has launched Japan's first music recognition service - MTV Music Finder, reports Rafat Ali for MocoNews.

In partnership with Shazam Entertainment, the UK-based audio technology company, and SystemK, the Japanese licensee who extensively localised the system for Japanese mobile web platforms, the music recognition service will be made available to wireless consumers across Japan on a subscription basis.

Chaoticom snags music deals with European carriers

Millions of European wireless phone customers can now download entire songs directly to their handsets, thanks to mobile music company Chaoticom Inc., reports RCR Wireless News via MocoNews.net.

"European carriers Orange U.K., Eurotel and Telenor Mobile Norway have partnered with Massachusetts-based Chaoticom to allow customers to browse, preview and download hundreds of tracks without interfering with incoming call reception or other calling services. The service, which first became available in the Czech Republic, is now being developed in the United Kingdom and Norway."

In addition, reports Rafat Ali, Chaoticom has signed deals with record labels such as BMG, Warner, Sony and others, to provide customers with a range of songs for downloading.

KDDI to Offer Full-Song Download Service for Cell Phones

KDDI Corp next spring will become the first Japanese mobile phone company to offer a service enabling music to be downloaded to cellular phones so that they can be used as portable music players, reports NEAsia.

"The inauguration of the service will coincide with the debut of new 3G (third-generation) handsets that can store large amounts of data. The first of these handsets will be able to store five five-minute songs apiece, and 50-song models are under development. Once stored, the songs can be played repeatedly.

KDDI is now negotiating fees for the songs with music labels. Currently, 30-second songs that serve as ringer melodies now cost about 105 yen. The average of 210 yen charged for downloading a full song to a personal computer will probably be used a reference for setting the price for cell phone downloads.

The firm started offering songs as ringer melodies in December 2002, but the short melodies are just the "hook" portions of the songs. Nevertheless, the service has been a hit, and the number of downloads is expected to break the 100 million mark as early as the start of this month".

"Ear Phones" technology

Germany's T-Mobile attempts will announce the roll out later on Monday of five new handsets equipped with "Ear Phones" technology, which enables customers to download three CD-quality tracks to their phone, according to Reuters.

The T-Mobile handsets will be available as of Monday in its markets of Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Song downloads will be limited to a catalog of 500 "mobile mixes," or condensed versions lasting 90- to 120-seconds.

T-Mobile, though, is promising a downloadable catalog of 250,000 full-length tracks by Christmas. It has already enlisted the help of some of the world's biggest music companies including Universal Music , Sony Music and Warner Music."

Budding DJs get mixing on mobiles

Festival-goers at Glastonbury 2004 have been getting a taste of making their own music with a new service launched by Orange, reports the BBC.

"Fireplayer allows music-lovers to pay to download a full track and mix it up on their mobiles. Users can add their own sound effects, like vocals or bass, and can save it as their unique ringtone".

Also launching on 1 July is the first mobile music download service, Music Player. It lets music-lovers download and listen to full-length tracks for £1.50, without the need for a separate player device.

Orange has done deals with music labels, Warner Music and V2, to provide 20 tracks at launch for the services. It is also finalising further deals with all the major record labels, as well as some indies, to provide more choice.

"Artists and labels are embracing mobile music more than ever," Mark Ashford, head of Orange entertainment told BBC News Online.

Rolling Stone Ringtones

Dwango, a leading developer and distributor of entertainment content and applications for mobile phones, today announced the launch of Rolling Stone Ringtones.

The Rolling Stone Ringtones service, which also provides access to current music reviews from Rolling Stone magazine, is now available through AT&T Wireless, Cingular and Nextel across a variety of wireless handsets.

Dwango is licensed to offer the Rolling Stone Ringtones service through a partnership with RealNetworks and Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone.

Orange in music-on-mobiles move

Orange customers will soon be able to download full-length music to mobile phones via the company's Music Player service, reports MacWorld UK.

"The service will be provided by Chaoticom, a provider of mobile music-download solutions, and will be exclusive to Orange for 12 months. It launches on July 1, and allows users to download full-length tracks from a constantly updated list of the latest tunes and listen to them without the need for any extra devices, says the company".

"A number of industry watchers are suggesting that the mobile-phone market could be a threat to the iPod's dominance of the MP3 market. "It won't be long before the storage capabilities of cell phones make it practical to hold a personal jukebox worth of songs on a phone," said Eric Hellweg in a report in Technology Review."

Hifi Ringtones.co.uk to distribute real music ringtones

Sony Music Entertainment and V2 Music recently made agreements with Hifi Ringtones.co.uk to distribute real music ringtones, according to a company press release.

These agreements will make available Sony Music & V2 Music ringtones that are extracted from the original recordings of songs, rather than simple tones or 'Sound Alike' Tones.

"As the capability of each new handset grows, Sony Music are now about to offer consumers the quality of ringtone that they really want." said Peter Leggatt General Manager, Business Development, Sony Music Entertainment UK
"Working with Hifi-Ringtones.co.uk allows us to deliver excerpts from the
master recordings, that means the original music as the ringtone. This is a
great leap forward and benefits our artists whose music will be legitimately
available through the mobile channel"

Orange music download service set to be hit

In UK, Orange users can now download music straight to their mobile phones and remix real tracks to make unique ringtones following the launch of two new music services from the network, reports Moco News.

"The music download service, Music Player, allows full tracks to be selected, previewed and then downloaded over the air, while the other new Orange music service, Fire Player, enables users to download real music files with component tracks separated so they can be remixed by the user and saved as True Tone ringtones."

Mobile music streaming service

A new service called StreamMan has commercially launched today with TeliaSonera in Finland and will be launched across Europe with major mobile operators in the near future.

Developped by End2End in partnership with Sony Network Services, StreamMan enables end-users to enjoy a large portfolio of songs from both major and independent record labels, as well as access dynamic news content, artist information, and community features such as messaging and music exchange. More in company press release

FM Keitai Rocks!

The "FM Keitai," the most successful FM radio cell phone on planet Earth, is rocking the airwaves in Tokyo, reports Wireless Watch Japan.

"There are over 450,000 users and DJs and announcers are voicing special messages intended just for phone listeners: "Please press the 'Star' button to get more information on product X."

Audio-loving mobilers can also download a digital clip of the currently playing song, thanks to BREW. It's a media marketing dream come true, and it's only the beginning".

Make ringtones From Your Favorite CDs

Now you can create a ringtone from your favorite CD and send it to your cell phone for use as a personalized ringer, according to phonecontent.com.

SnipnSend (Patent Pending), "allows anyone, 8 to 80, freedom of choice in creating 30-second ringtones from personal CD collections".

How does it work?

Step 1: Enter your cell phone number
Step 2: Choose a song track from your CD
Step 3: Enter a snip starting point - click Create My Ring Tone

Mobile media start-up PrimeTones is the first web site to offer Snip 'n Send.

VP for Artist Relations, David Blumberg says, "It's a no-brainer ... this is the ticket that gives record companies an unprecedented opportunity to promote artists while allowing users freedom of choice previously unavailable. The beleaguered recording industry sees ringtones/tunes as a cash cow in the 3.5 billion dollar ringtone market".

Universal Music UK To Distribute Music on Mobiles Through WebTV

Universal Music UK has signed a deal with UK-based Webtv Europe to enable the secure distribution of its music and video portfolio to mobile phones and hand-held devices, according to a company press release via Moco News.

NTT's New Music Recognition System

Rafat Ali for Moco News writes that NTT in Japan has developed its own music-recognition technology and has built a prototype system to demonstrate its capability. The company is now in the process of creating a new mobile service based on the system.

"Aimed at users of 3G mobile phones, NTT's system will allow users to search for the title of a song by holding their phone up to an analog audio source such as a home or car stereo".

Get Backstage with Your Mobile Phone

Versaly Entertainment, a wireless new media company, announced today it has signed an agreement with UltraStar, an online marketing company to the music industry, to create an entire line of mobile products for select UltraStar artists, whose clients include Sting, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, according to a company press release.

" In additional to music ringtones, wallpaper and screensavers, Versaly will be providing custom recorded voice ringtones, master ringback tones, voicemail OGM greetings, event calendars, SMS alerts for concert notifications, SMS voting of favorite songs, daily mobile travelogue taken with a camera phone, a multimedia journal and other mobile products available to fan club members, mobile phone users registered on the fan club website and concert goers".

Recordstore to offer chart-eligible downloads from artist web sites

Music e-tailer Recordstore.co.uk is launching a new service enabling labels and artists to sell chart-eligible downloads straight from their web sites.

The company is in talks with all of its 200 labels and artists with a view towards adding digital facilties to their existing online stores.  

Launched at the end of this month, the service will seamlessly integrate downloads with artists' existing online stores, so that fans will be able to mix digital and physical goods within the same basket, according to a company press release.

Sony pioneers personal radio to mobile phones

Consumers can tailor the music stream by pressing a button on their phone to indicate they like or dislike a song, according to USA Today.

Sony's service, for which it has no name yet, will work on advanced multimedia handsets running on the Symbian software system, available on phones from Nokia, Siemens AG, Sony Ericsson, Sendo and others.

The music will be sent over the GPRS data-capable network of a mobile operator at a speed of 16 kilobits per second. It is not close to compact disc quality, but Sony reckons it is good enough to start with, while waiting for the faster 3G networks.

Sony also announced the European opening in June of its Connect music store on the Internet, where consumer can buy songs from 0.99 euros apiece and download them on their computer before exporting them to Sony minisdisc players and walkmans".

Ring tones jump from PCs to CDs

In a first for the cell phone ring tone industry, a record label is now including on some albums software to assemble digital recordings into custom tones, according to News.com.

"Once loaded onto someone's personal computer, the ring tone assembly software works with the tracks on "Palm Trees and Power Lines," the latest album from Artemis Records artist Sugarcult.

People who want to use the software to turn any recording on the computer into a ring tone must first pay $15 for the full software, supplied by Xingtone. Xingtone and Artemis split the revenue. Until now, the only way to get Xingtone software was through a Web download."