Pocket Picks has already given you the heads-up on the phling! mobile music service but we managed to meet up with Graeme Smith, from creators Oxysystems, to see the service in action. Phling! basically streams music stored on your PC to your mobile handset over a recommended 3G connection. It will also let you access every single track on your PC (except DRM encoded tracks) and view and play songs from up to six other member’s collections.
When you join the phling! community — and be aware Oxysystems isn’t after creating a sprawling Facebook type social network, rather sharing between mates — you have to be willing to let other phlingers view your collection (excluding podcasts, pictures and other PC content) and vice versa. To do this you will need to download software to your PC and a Java app to your phone.
If you have amassed a mammoth digital music library the advantages of phling! are obvious. With storage on phones still relatively limited, you won’t have to keep choosing what music to side load onto your phone every day because your entire collection is in front of you. Phling! also lets you rate songs and leave message to other and is working with independent label and artists so you can listen to they tunes for free.
Right now phling! has gone live in Switzerland and the service cost seven Francs a month including data charges (this works out at about 9p per day). Of course when you stream the music the issue of data charges does loom but with T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and 3 offering all-you-can-eat transparent monthly data tariffs in the UK you won’t have to worry too much about extra costs. Pocket Picks had a play around with Phling! and once in the app you can easily access your collection via artist, album or playlists.
We streamed the music over a GPRS connection and apart from the odd buffering lag it sounded fine. Of course it should be seamless over 3G but phling!’s Achilles heel will be when the 3G signal fluctuates and affects the performance. Also, despite news of the London Underground being fitted with mobile receivers in the future, you won’t be able to listen to phling! when commuting to work on the tube.
Oxysystems is currently in talks with numerous UK networks to integrate phling! into their existing music download services so stay tuned. Otherwise, if you’re in a cost-effective data plan, why not pop along to phling! and give it a whirl.
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