Vodafone to crank up mobile music usage
28 March 2006
UK-based mobile operator Vodafone will supply wholesale data packages to service providers to help stimulate music and video downloads.
Currently, downloading a music file to a mobile can take hours and cost tens of pounds in downloading costs. Vodafone's new range of data packages are specifically targeted at music. Companies buying these data packages can now offer music to consumers at a reasonable price, estimated to be around £1.50 per track.
Vodafone has been piloting the service with large aggregators such as mBlox since before Christmas and is geared at supplying media providers with bulk data rates. This will allow them to integrate the cost of the data transmission into the cost of the retail product.
At the wholesale rate, Vodafone will take a reduced cut on the direct revenues attached to each download, but instead "hopes to stimulate usage in a very big pond," a Vodafone spokesman said.
Although the service is still in a 'pilot' stage, the Vodafone spokesman said: "This is more about making sure the offering is right before releasing it to the mass market."
Music labels Ministry of Sound and V2, as well as Monstermob, the mobile entertainment company, are all expected to launch new mobile music services this week, some of which will be powered by aggregator mBlox.
Michele Mackenzie, analyst at Ovum, commented that the announcement is not altogether unexpected and predicts that other operators will follow suit fairly quickly.
While full track downloads over wireless are already sold at a premium to the fixed offering, "large players such as Vodafone, which can absorb the cost of the traffic for their on-portal offerings, have a chance to compete in this market," said Mackenzie.
"This wholesale deal will allow the independent players to offer a competitive, integrated price for rich media. The uptake of rich wireless music services has been slow. In order to grow the overall market for rich wireless applications and drive up usage, it is important to lower the barriers to entry to non-network owners."
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