01/28/2008, 9:40am, EST
Monday, January 28thSony-Ericsson nabs major music label support
Sony-Ericsson this morning revealed an aggressive step into online music with expanded plans for its upcoming PlayNow arena music service. The cellphone producer says it has now struck deals to offer downloadable full tracks from major labels EMI, Warner Music, and its sibling Sony BMG as well as larger independents such as The Orchard and X5. This will add up to more than five million songs available for owners of Sony-Ericsson handsets, the company says. No details have been given as to whether the catalog will extend to the ordinary PlayNow service already available today, which sells some full music as well as ringtones.
An initial launch for PlayNow arena is scheduled for May of this year for Sony-Ericsson's Scandinavian home region and will debut in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden as part of a simultaneous release. More European countries will join in June while the Americas, Asia, and Europe at large will gain access during the summer. Additionally, 250 games from EA and other major mobile developers are being added to the service.
The signings provide Sony-Ericsson one of the most complete mobile music catalogs available today and place the company into more direct competition with Apple, whose iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for the iPhone effectively mirrors the 6 million-plus songs available from the company through its computer front-end. Universal Music Group is conspicuously absent from Sony-Ericsson's offering as the label is joined with Nokia's Comes With Music service, which will factor a music subscription into the cost of yet to be announced handsets.
Filed under: iPhone, industry, Apple
Other story tags: iTunes, Nokia, Universal, Warner, Sony-Ericsson, Comes With Music, Sony BMG, PlayNow
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Plus, you only have the music on that phone. What happens when you change phones??
Apple did it right, at the very front. Buy music, put on phone, enjoy. If you buy it on the phone, it syncs with the computer when you recharge and you still own the music. Change phones and the music stays with you.
Oh, this phone will sell music cause teenages will buy anything but they will not buy enough. I predict the service will die in a year or so.
en
Just a thought. :-)
With Apple you can only use your computer, iPod, an iPhone. How is that different than what has been shown here? Where do you see that this is locked to the phone? The press release clearly states that it gets downloaded to your PC or phone. There are no details on if the songs will be locked to SEMC phones or not, while we know that if you get a phone other than an iPhone you can no longer listen to the song on your handset.