Napster and Ericsson ink mobile music deal

Written by James Delahunty @ 16 Jun 2005 3:36 User comments (2)

Napster, one of the Internet's biggest online music download services has inked a deal with Ericsson to provide a mobile music service. The service will supply over-the-air downloads as well as downloads through a PC. It will offer subscription services as well as one-off download sales. This comes 11 months after Apple announced it had a deal with Motorola to make an iTunes phone that could store and play music bought from the iTunes music store.

The iTunes phone is still unreleased however and has failed to show up at many public events. The idea of the iTunes phone is not a favoured one in the mobile phone industry however because it relies on downloads made with a computer, not downloads made through a mobile network. However Napster and Ericsson have assured networks that their business model "accommodates mobile operator participation in all revenue streams".

Napster's music store uses Windows DRM technology but the Ericsson service will support other DRM schemes to "work on mobile phones from all major manufacturers that support content protected by digital rights management". This deal is anther step towards mobile phones becoming multimedia handsets as well as telecommunications devices.

Source:
The Register

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2 user comments

117.6.2005 05:33

anttipng

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Newbie

I think that the big N will be a winner in this race for mobile music machine. Their n91 is a real working product. With 4g of memory and a nokia user-interface that will be a hard one for others to bite. The real question is will the price be low enough for people to buy the n91 or will they go with a cheaper phone and an ipod.

217.6.2005 22:27

Mr_Del

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So this would mean that you would have to buy the same song twice to have it on your computer and phone. This is the way I read it because of that DRM crap which by the way is in new P-4 processors. They didn't want you to know that so Intel snuk it in without a peep. Well I am PEEEPing. P-4 now have DRM firmware. P-4 must now die. They will not tell you nor will you find out on their web site. DRM must also die. -Del

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Napster and Ericsson ink mobile music deal

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