Mobile Music Market Review

As many of you know, not so long ago I joined the Comverse Fun Dial business unit - who brings you the ringback tones service. One of the first things I did in order to learn the material was to review the services available on the mobile music market today. Thinking it mught be interesting and handy for some of my readers, I’m sharing this brief review - so here we go :)

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The mobile music market is presenting a substantial growth, with key players like handset vendors and operators offering customers communication and entertainment. The mobile music value chain represents key telecommunication companies, mobile operators and handset vendors partnering with record labels to offer music content to the users.

Mobile Handsets

Today, many mobile handsets are able to play MP3 or WMA music files, so the mobile HS is practically an iPod or a MP3 music player together with the “regular” mobile features (voice, SMS, etc'). The dedicated music phones, like the Sony Ericsson’s series of Walkmans handsets, provide up to 4G (~4000 tracks!). Whereas most of the "plain" handsets provide up to 64MB of storage space, which are about 15 tracks.

Operator services

Most of the mobile operators offer music content such as ringtones, real-tones, ringback tones, full-track music download, and music videos through the operator’s portal. To get your music, all you have to do is browse the portal and search through a list of artists\songs, select your favorite and download it straight to your HS.

To enlarge sales and revenues, operators also need to invest in developing different mechanisms to expose users to new music and entice them to download.

Non-operator services

As mobile music is a thriving market, many want to take piece of the pie. Not only operators offer mobile music content, but also many ‘off-portal’ companies like Jamster, Blinko and Moderati, hold a share of the market. By simply sending a short code through an SMS, users download ringtones and other mobile cintent, unaware of the provider's identity.

Mobile Radio

Maybe a little underestimated but still living among us - the radio! A rising number of handsets have an FM radio built in. A cool example of integrating radio streaming with the mobile is Vodaphone's Radio DJ app. It is practically the mobile version of Pandora, that let’s you

“create your own music channels by rating tracks as you listen to them. Then the more you listen and rate, the more personalized the music channels become”.

[via Gizmodo]

As the industry for mobile music content and services keeps growing, network operators and content providers are looking for new ways to maintain connections with music oriented users. For the talented and creative mobile users, one new area is interactive mobile music services such as phone ringtone "remixers". A ringtone remixer is an app enabling users to compose or arrange a piece of music and save the "remix" as a ringtone.

Make your own music

As the industry for mobile music content and services keeps growing, network operators and content providers are looking for new ways to maintain connections with music oriented users. For the talented and creative mobile users, one new area is interactive mobile music services such as phone ringtone "remixers". A ringtone remixer is an app enabling users to compose or arrange a piece of music and save the "remix" as a ringtone.