Nokia and Loudeye bring music to Germany — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{O2 Germany offers mobile music to 7 million} Nokia and Loudeye bring music to Germany

9 Mar 2005 at 09:15 GMT Timo Poropudas

Nokia and Loudeye Corp. today announced that O2 Germany has signed up with Nokia to launch a complete mobile music experience under the O2 Germany brand powered by Loudeye.

The O2 Germany mobile music service will leverage the platform developed by Loudeye and Nokia that allows operators worldwide to launch comprehensive branded mobile music services for their customers with a minimum amount of effort and resources. O2 Germany is the fastest growing mobile operator in Germany and part of the European O2 group.

“We were the first German mobile operator to launch a music service, with O2 music one year ago,” said Lutz Schüler, member of the board of O2 Germany.

“During this year, we plan to address the mass market with a large number of handsets from different manufacturers, as well as the possibility for music download on both mobile phones and over the Internet. The open platform from Nokia and Loudeye makes it possible to achieve this.”

O2 Germany’s mobile music experience will allow users to browse, search, listen, and download full-length songs to their mobile device based on the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Digital Rights Management specifications. Music purchases will be billed directly to a user’s existing O2 Germany monthly statement. Currently, O2 Germany has over 230,000 songs available for contract customers and starting in summer 2005, customers will have access to more than 500,000 songs covering genres such as pop, jazz, rock, R&B and dance.

Customers can also use their personal computer to access the O2 music shop via the Internet and download songs to their PC. The service will also allow users to synchronize their music collection with their mobile device. Songs that have been purchased remain available for customers to download free of charge to their mobile device or PC.

O2 is also offering a mobile music search and recognition service called “Music Spy”. This service allows customers to discover the name of the artist or song playing on the radio by simply calling a toll-free number and holding their phone towards the music. Seconds later, the call will end and the customer will receive a text message with the song title and artist, as well as a link to buy the song from the O2 Germany music store.

“It’s fantastic to have an operator like O2 Germany on board as our first mobile music solution customer,” said Jonas Geust, vice president, Music, Nokia. “Mobility is a big part of music’s future and now O2 Germany customers can enjoy a seamless mobile music experience with innovative services and features. Together with Loudeye, we can offer operators the most comprehensive service that integrates both the mobile and PC world, so that consumers can enjoy their music without wondering about the underlying technology.”