O2 and Napster launch mobile music service

by Stevie Smith - Mar 17 2008, 16:38

Yet another partnership between a music portal and a handset operator arrives this week with iPhone-carrying O2 having joined forces with popular online music provider Napster to launch a new mobile music service.

Launched this past weekend, the music download service enables mobile phone-equipped music lovers to purchase song content directly through their handsets, with one copy of the bought track delivered to their phone, while another can be sent to their waiting PC.

The new service will offer users access to some 5 million musical tracks taken from all of the world’s biggest record labels (Sony BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music and the EMI Group) along with hundreds of independent recording artists too.

In terms of associated price charges related to the service’s initial three-month trial period, individual song selections will cost 0.99 GBP each (no data download charges).

That opening price point may yet change after the completion of the service’s trial period.

Further download incentive is dangled before users via an offer allowing them to download a bundle of 5 tracks for only 4.00 GBP as opposed to the standard 4.95 GBP.

“This is another great example of our strategy of creating deep level partnerships with the best companies in the world to deliver compelling services to our customers,” enthused Sally Cowdry, marketing director of O2 UK in a Telegraph report.

“We have joined forces with a leader in this space to bring our customers a high quality, great value music service with the widest choice of songs available on mobile,” she added.

O2 and Napster’s partnership provides a definite up-point against rival providers thanks to buyers owning their music tracks even if they later choose to switch mobile phone operators and leave the O2 fold.

This is an aspect not readily available through a lot of similar ‘rental’ music services, which often leave ‘purchased’ content unplayable should the customer change operators or cancel their music subscription.

That being said, the service does have one glaring downside, which is that all purchases are lumbered with digital rights management (DRM) copy protection, which will leave users unable to copy or share their content.

In a music world where the inclusion of DRM is on a definite decline as music labels look to bolster digital sales, O2 and Napster’s DRM implementation might alienate many prospective customers.

The new service is available through O2’s ‘Active Portal’ and is compatible with around 30 WAP-enabled mobile phone handsets. Another possible downside arises through the service’s lack of compatibility with O2’s Apple iPhone handset, which uses a much more complete onboard Web browser rather than basic WAP.

Other rival mobile music download services already available throughout the UK include Nokia’s Ovi platform and Nokia Music Store, and also Vodafone’s MusicStation, the latter of which charges a weekly 1.99 GBP flat rate and allows users the unlimited rental of any tracks they choose.

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