Vodafone UK has launched a new mobile music store that’s an application on your phone, rather than part of the Vodafone Live WAP portal. It’s branded as Vodafone Music Store, and offers full tracks from 99p, and albums starting at £5.99, with downloads happening over the air. Before using it, I’d want to know what DRM is involved, and how I’d be able to play those tracks (if at all) on my PC, my home stereo and my iPod. If there are too many restrictions, it’d make more sense to simply buy the DRM-free MP3 files from online stores and then transfer them to my phone. According to MocoNews, the new app will complement the existing MusicStation subscription service offered by Vodafone, rather than replace it.
Tag Archive for 'Music'
Research In Motion is keen to stress the all-round media marvellousness of its BlackBerry handsets in order to shrug off their staid business reputation, and it’s doing a pretty good job with the likes of the Curve and Pearl. Now BlackBerry Media Sync is upping their music capabilities further. How? It’s a desktop application that makes it simple to sync music from your iTunes library with your BlackBerry, both in terms of specific playlists and mixes chosen at random from your entire collection. It automatically syncs with your playlists too, so changes you make in iTunes are reflected on your handset. I have to admit, I’m torn. I use the Curve as my work mobile, so it’d be good to have music on there. But then, my personal phone - which is always at hand - is an iPhone with a bunch of recent albums on it, so I’m not sure if the duplication is worthwhile. But of course, many people only carry a BlackBerry - for them, the new Media Sync app is an essential download. Get it here.
It seems like an age since Windows Mobile was for stuffy business smartphones only. Microsoft’s mobile OS has now made its way into various slinky consumer-focused handsets too, with a corresponding improvement in its multimedia features. However, it seems Microsoft wants to go further, and take on Apple’s iPhone.”One thing that Apple has leveraged on is the music scenario, and I think that that is something the operators and ourselves are partnering on, just to make sure that consumers can use live music in the best way,” senior VP Andy Lees tells Reuters, albeit without giving any details on the company’s music plans. Hopefully they involve banning phrases like ‘leveraging on the music scenario’ though.One thing Microsoft won’t be doing anytime soon is releasing a ZunePhone, according to another exec Robbie Bach, who’s reasserted that “We don’t make phones ourselves. We don’t have any plans to make phones ourselves”. However, he’s bullish about Windows Mobile’s prospects: “We will outsell the iPhone. We will outsell the BlackBerry.” So there you have it.
Starbucks is doing it (Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell). Bacardi is doing it (Er, Groove Armada). Red Bull is reportedly doing it later this year. What? Forming a record label, that’s what.
Why shouldn’t Nokia? It’s a question I asked the company’s Tero Ojanpera at this morning’s press event in London. And here’s his reply:
“No, we don’t intend to become a record label. It’s about activities such as A&R and scouting talent. What I hope we are able to do is use technology to discover new talent, and to promote talent too. But we are not planning to become a record label.”
So there you have it.
Her words will be her own, and rest assured, shelovesyou shelovesyou shelovesyou. Yep, Natasha Bedingfield will be the star attraction on this weekend’s Nokia Green Room on Channel 4 - it’s the show that Nokia is sponsoring to promote its Nokia Music Store. Other acts appearing include Feeder (are they still going?), The Delays (likewise) and Leon Jean-Marie.
The mobile-broadcasting tie-up means there’ll also be exclusive live tracks on the Nokia Music Store from Monday morning from all those acts, as free MP3s. That’s right, free. It’s an interesting counterpart to what Apple’s done in the past with its sponsored iTunes gigs, although in those cases, Apple sold the resulting live tracks on iTunes, rather than giving away.
The Green Room looks set to be just the start of a huge promotional push by Nokia for mobile music this year, particularly once its Comes With Music scheme launches - where you’ll buy a handset and get free unlimited music thrown in as part of the cost. It’s also just the latest example of how mobile firms are increasingly influential in music TV, following previous sponsorships by T-Mobile, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone.
(via NokNok)
Social music site Last.FM uses a process called ‘Audioscrobbling’ to automatically grab data about music you are listening to and upload it to a central database.
Data from ’scrobbled’ tracks is used to build up a profile of your musical taste. Last.FM uses this profile to assemble a personalised streaming music station of similar artists and musical styles.
Asplayer is a Python app that brings this functionality to S60 3rd Edition phones for the first time. It only supports the scrobbling side of the equation at the moment - artist and title data from tracks played on your phone’s media player are uploaded to Last.FM using your internet connection - you will still need to go to the Last.FM website in order to listen to your customised playlist.
Asplayer is available here and requires a copy of Python for S60 and an account with Last.Fm, all available for free.
Pocket Picks takes no responsibility for readers whose musical taste generates streams of 80s hair metal or progressive jazz. You have only yourselves to blame.
Syntrax is not the most useful bit of S60 and Windows Mobile software out there, but for a certain type of person - one who likes electronic music, bleepy synthesizers and harbours secret ambitions to perform with The Orb - it is great fun.
Syntrax is a bit like a scaled down version of the PC/Mac synth Rebirth. Wheras Rebirth emulated a variety of real-world analogue synths like the TR-808 and TR-303, Syntrax is more like a ‘tribute’ to analogue synths with its cut-down display and sawn-off sequencer.
It’s pretty powerful for all that. For the cost of a download, you get an 8-track midi-compatible sequencer, synth and a sample editor.
You can build your own tracks from scratch or play with one of the library of presets and example tracks. The only limitation in the version linked here is a lack of Save option - but a free registration will soon take care of that.
Sony Ericsson has revealed the next stage in the evolution of its PlayNow arena mobile music download service. Deals with 10 major record labels have been struck which will add over five million new and mostly DRM-free tracks to the PlayNow arena catalog.
Besides the ten major labels, Sony Ericsson is also planning to snare some regional labels to further deepen its bucket of musical riches. Sounds to us like the service could seriously compete with those sorts of numbers. Hit the jump for a list of the ten record companies that are already onboard.
Continue reading ‘Sony Ericsson gives its PlayNow music service a shot in the arm’
The Filter is a free S60 3rd Edition app that offers a clever way of navigating your mobile music collection.
The app will scan your handset for any playable music files to create its database and then let you scroll through a list of artists, titles or genres to build up a playlist of tracks.
The clever part is the ability to select an artist and push right on the joystick to search by recommendation. This feature searches through your collection to find similar artists. So, as in the example given in this video, you can select ‘The Strokes’ and get a recommendation that Beck, Doves and The White Stripes would go well with them in a playlist.
Actually building a playlist can a one-click process, although that does assume that you want all tracks by that particular artist. The developers recommend that you have a least 200 tracks on your phone in order to get the most from the app. Nokia N95 8GB users, start your engines..
Mobile Music has come a long way this year. A good quality music player is now standard on any halfway decent mobile phone and manufacturers are making headway in practical handset designs that making listening a more enjoyable experience.
Enough of my yakkin’, let’s rock:
