Mobile content delivery startup Myxer has officially delivered over 10 million free ringtones to iPhone users.

Source: TechCrunch

du has announced the launch of enhanced caller tunes service for mobile customers in the UAE.

For the first time in the UAE, mobile customers will get the facility of instantly copying the caller tune while listening to the caller tune of the called person by simply pressing ‘*’.

Another feature never offered before in the UAE is to gift the caller tune by using IVR facility.

A choice of more than 10,000 new and old mega hits provides the widest range in the UAE sourced from du’s exclusive arrangements with renowned content providers.

Source: Du Press Release

According to a new report from Juniper Research, the combined revenues from services such as streamed mobile music and full-track downloads is expected to increase to $5.5bn in 2013. Some of the supporting factors for this increase would be a  greater variety of applications and content, all-inclusive data packages, consumer friendly UIs and an increase in handset storage capacity.

It also states that though there’s a decline in revenues from traditional music services like polyphonic ringtones and realtones, there’s an increase in usage of more sophisticated offerings.  However, music services depending on an ad-funded model might see a decline in revenue due to a reduction in advertising budgets. It further mentions that ringback tone revenues will be higher than those of ringtones by 2010 and content aggregators will have to look beyond ringtones to remain competitive. Juniper Research also forecasts that Far East & China region will account for the largest share of mobile music revenues throughout the 2009-2013 forecast period, followed by Western Europe.

Source: FierceMobileContent

The European Commission is poised to announce it will launch inquiries into premium ringtone websites across Europe after an investigation determined that a vast majority of mobile music storefronts are misleading consumers via unclear fees and other confusing subscriber information. The commission’s ringtone effort follows a year-long study into consumer law breaches across more than 500 websites spanning the 27-nation European Union. Commonly-cited retail tactics including signing users to subscriptions under the pretense of selling one-off premium downloads and employing free offers as a front for long-term paid contracts. More than 80 percent of the 500 ringtone websites under the EU’s microscope were flagged for further investigation–in Britain alone, 39 of 43 sites warrant a closer regulatory look.

Source:Times Online

According to a new forecast issued by digital media research firm eMarketer,online and mobile platforms will account for about 40 percent of total music spending in 2009. Citing plummeting sales of traditional physical formats as well as recent developments like Vodafone and MySpace’s Vodafone Music Reporter venture, eMarketer argues that music fans are seeking digital music communities that deliver a more unique, interactive experience by bringing together online, mobile and user-generated platforms like blogs.

According to the report, mobile–which accounted for $1.7 billion of 2007’s $29.2 billion worldwide music spending–will increase to $3.0 billion in 2008, $4.8 billion in 2009 and $6.2 billion in 2010, even as physical formats and total music spending continues to drop year-over-year. eMarketer anticipates that online and mobile will together combine for $14.8 billion in 2011, overtaking physical music media to account for 56.5 percent of all music spending.

Source: EMarketer

Indian telecom operators are tuning in to digital music as an alternative revenue stream, with income from traditional modes starting to dry up.

The ubiquitous mobile phone is metamorphosing into a jukebox and mobile music sales – ringtones, caller ring back tones (CRBTs) and full song downloads – have crossed sales of physical formats in the country.

According to data from industry associations, mobile music sales stood at about Rs 1,200 crore in 2006, as compared to Rs 756 crore recorded by music shipped over the conventional mode. “Mobile operators are betting big on music as it is emerges as the biggest money-spinner under value added services (VAS), next only to SMSes.The increase in subscriber base and the availability of music compatible handsets are major reasons for the increase in digital music sales.”

The increased focus is confirmed by the fact that over 40 percent of a telecom operator’s advertisement budget is being used for promotion of music and handsets that can support them.

At present, a mobile operator’s major revenues are from voice services. However, average revenue per user (ARPU) – an indicator of the financial health of mobile companies – is declining rapidly. Industry ARPUs fell to Rs 330 per month in the first quarter of this financial year, from Rs 370 in the previous quarter.

There is a rising market for mobile music, especially due to the affinity of Indians to Bollywood. Music would be another revenue earner for mobile companies.

The mobile music sales is expected to surge to over Rs 3,750 crore by 2009, and with the industry adding around 7 million users per month, operators are seeing a huge opportunity.

VAS accounts for around 10 percent of a company’s revenues, of which music contributes about 4 percent.

The convenience of purchasing single songs, unlike buying a CD, and the ease to carry it around on a mobile phone has also made it a favourite. And operators have exploited this by rolling out music-enabled handsets, encouraging music downloads and offering FM and Internet radio services.

On the penetration front, CRBTs have made a 15-25 percent dent, followed by ringtones with around 15-20 percent, and the remaining can be attributed to full song downloads.

Music is the second largest VAS service for Airtel after SMS. Bharti Airtel’s music portfolio is over 50,000 strong, including complete tracks, ring tones, ring-back tones and corporate jingles. Given the fact that music is neither handset- nor language-dependent, the market for music is growing.

Source: Business Standard

A research by Screen Digest has revealed that music and television will drive the mobile market in the coming years, with gaming taking back seat. The three areas together are likely to generate a total of €8.4 billion in revenues by 2011.

Link: The mobile content revolution: How gaming, music and TV will
transform the mobile market by 2011 (.PDF)Source: Screen Digest

Source:

Now you can listen to your favorite streaming digital radio stations with Mundu Radio (150,000 downloads in just 5 months of launch) and chat across all public IM networks with Mundu IM (over 200,000 users) and convert your mobile phone into a communication and entertainment hub.

Try Mundu applications at http://messenger.mundu.com/ and http://radio.mundu.com/

Source : Mundu

Mercora tie up with Microsoft to promote its streaming music service for smart phones, called M.Mercora M is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphones and PocketPC phones.

The service offers more than 100,000 channels of music for streaming directly to any Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phone, and has added more than 7,000 podcast channels.

Microsoft will offer M as a free six-month subscription to all Windows Mobile users. The application can be downloaded from the Windows Mobile site directly to phones.

Supported Devices

Source:Mercora

Winamp, the most popular music player for PC’s has launched a mobile version which would allow users to stream their PC music collection to their mobile phone.

Users have to install software on their PC’s to enable the streaming, but they use just their existing mobile web browser on their handsets – no need to install anything into the phone itself.

Source: Cellular-News