Ericsson and Napster have signed an agreement with Chilean operator Entel PCS to launch the Napster Mobile service in Latin America. The Napster Mobile service has been co-developed by Ericsson and Napster. Under the agreement, Ericsson will have responsibility for systems integration, management of the day-to-day operations and development of the service. The agreement also includes content and digital rights management. Napster Mobile is based on Ericsson’s service delivery platform and will enable Entel PCS subscribers to search, browse, preview and purchase content via i-shop mobile handsets. The service offers a dual-delivery option for simultaneous downloads to subscribers’ mobile phones and PCs.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
AT&T has announced that its mobile customers will soon be able to download full-track songs over the air from Napster. The Napster Mobile service will begin in mid-November, enabling AT&T customers to search a music catalogue with more than 5 million songs, preview samples of each song and conveniently purchase and download their favourite music from their handsets. Customers can also download five tracks a month with the Napster Mobile Five-Track Pack option for a discounted price of USD 7.49 or purchase songs a la carte for USD 1.99. Napster Mobile will also feature joint delivery, sending a track to the user’s handset while making a duplicate copy available for download to the user’s PC at no additional charge. AT&T will kick off its new Napster Mobile music download service by featuring music content from Matchbox Twenty and the band’s new album within the AT&T Mobile Music platform on phones. In addition to Napster Mobile, AT&T is also announcing two new music applications: MobiVJ, a streaming video service, and VIP Access, a mobile fan club and discovery service. VIP Access will be available in early November.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
AT&T Inc. (T) unveiled on Monday a service that allows its subscribers to download music from Napster Inc. (NAPS) directly to their cellphones, keeping pace with services already offered by rival wireless carriers.
It represents a shift in AT&T’s stance on mobile music to an “over-the-air” download model versus “sideloading,” or transferring music from a computer to a phone through a physical connection.
The service, Napster Mobile, is an expansion of AT&T’s foray into music. In July, it began a download service called eMusic, which catered to the independent scene.
“The important thing you have to look at is it’s not a standalone offer,” said Roger Entner, head of the communications practice for IAG Research. “It’s another puzzle piece that hooks people into using their cellphone as a multimedia entertainment device.”
The carrier is following in the footsteps of Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), which have had similar services out for more than a year. The carriers look at data services as a growth opportunity, particularly as traditional voice revenue shrinks. Revenue from data is primarily made up of text messages, but music is a growing - albeit still small - contributor.
“To the extent that there are music aficionados who haven’t engaged in our services, this gives us a great opportunity to drive the business,” said Mark Collins, who heads up consumer data services for AT&T. “It’s one part of our multipart strategy.”
AT&T is charging $1.99 a track, or $7.49 for five of Napster’s more than 4 million songs, which it boasts is larger than the other carriers’ music libraries. The price is on par with the service offered by Verizon Wireless, which is jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD). Sprint, however, charges 99 cents after cutting the price of its downloads from $2.49 in March in an effort to spur demand.
Late Arrival
While AT&T said this was a logical evolution in its music game plan, network capability had a lot to do with the timing of the decision. AT&T was behind Verizon Wireless and Sprint in building out its third-generation, or 3G, network. Only now does it have enough 3G coverage to offer the service.
The other major carrier, Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DT) T-Mobile USA, is behind the others on its network upgrade and doesn’t offer a download service.
AT&T doesn’t believe it’s at a disadvantage because it follows its rivals. ” Absolutely not,” Collins said when asked about whether AT&T was late to the game in this area. “This has been a nascent market that’s just starting to gain momentum. We think we’re entering it at just the right time.”
Entner believes Verizon’s peers helped pave the way. “It’s still early,” he said. “Yes, they’re late to the game. But they let Sprint and Verizon develop the market, and now - they finally have a network in enough places - they can come out with the service.”
Revenue from music downloads wouldn’t make an impact until the middle of next year, Entner said. It will take longer to affect earnings, since the margins aren’t attractive, he added.
Apple Inc. (AAPL), which is AT&T’s partner in bringing out the ballyhooed iPhone, might have also nudged the carrier into this direction. Last month, it unveiled its iTunes Wi-Fi Music store, which allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to buy one of its 6 million songs for 99 cents wirelessly at a Wi-Fi hotspot. The feature highlighted AT&T’s lack of a download service.
AT&T, however, insists the Apple news wasn’t a factor. “It didn’t have any impact on our internal time to market,” Collins said. “These products take numbers of months to develop.”
For Napster, the partnership represents a strengthening of its relationship with AT&T. In March, AT&T signed a deal to give its subscribers access to its library for one year. When customers buy a song, one copy is sent to the phone over the air, while an additional copy is sent to their computer, similar to the Verizon Wireless and Sprint setups.
AT&T will unveil a set of phones that will be able to use the service when it launches in November. Collins said the downloads would take 15 to 30 seconds, depending on signal strength.
In addition, AT&T launched MobiVJ, which streams music video channels, and VIP Access, which allows customers to search for artist biographies and discographies. Both services are currently available.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News Mobile
Thanks to a new service called MusicStation, European customers will be able to download an unlimited amount of music to their mobile phones.
MusicStation launched in Sweden on Tuesday, and it will hit major markets in the rest of Europe, as well as Asia and Africa over the next few months. The company says it has agreements with 30 operators and hopes to serve over 100 million phones within the year.
North American plans for the service were not specified at all during the announcement.
The service would be like a Napster of sorts, which instead of charging per song, instead there would be a weekly charge of 2.99 euros for unlimited downloads. Your only limitation is the amount of memory your mobile phone has.
The company also said that eventually the tracks would be able to be transferred to your PC, but that part of the service was not currently available.
“MusicStation’s launch today heralds the beginning of the next generation of mobile music,” Rob Lewis said, CEO of the service’s parent company Omnifone.
Over 1 million tracks would be offered by the service, including music from the “Big 4″, Universal Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music, and EMI.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Telecompaper writes…Digital music provider Napster will soon launch an over-the-air (OTA) music subscription service through Napster Japan with NTT DoCoMo. The service will be the first deployment of Napster’s OTA music subscription service. The new Napster OTA service will be available to DoCoMo’s iMode subscribers via the soon-to-be-released 904i series of handsets. The services provides subscribers with full-length sons on their mobiles and integration with the PC so the songs can also be added to the PC later. Subscribers will also be able to view playlists available on the PC and download them directly to their handsets over-the-air. Napster will offer the ability to integrate billing for the Napster To Go service directly into a user’s NTT DoCoMo mobile phone bill.
Wireless Mobile Telecom
Telecompaper writes…Internet company AOL has announced an exclusive agreement with Napster to replace the AOL Music Now online music subscription service in the US. The Music Now service has around 350,000 paying subscribers. Visitors to the site are being re-directed to Napster. The deal will allow Napster to expand its subscriber base. All AOL Music Now pricing will be retained. AOL will promote Napster with links to the Napster digital music service on the AOL Music free music site. AOL and Napster aim to complete the service migration within 60 days.
Wireless Mobile Telecom
Ericsson, Entel to launch Napster Mobile
