An ever-increasing range of options are becoming available to Irish music fans

MOBILE DOWNLOADS:DOWNLOADING MUSIC is not limited to your PC. Mobile companies offer a range of options from downloads direct from the operator, to handset manufacturers branching out into music applications. Here are some of the main ones available to Irish music fans.

3 Music Store (www.three.ie)

3 Ireland’s Music Store offers a mixture of new releases, older tracks and videos to customers. The store has over 500,000 tracks, covering everything from pop and rock music to spoken word tracks and jazz.

Each track costs about €1.49, or €3.99 in a bundle of three. Videos cost €1.99 each or €4.99 for a bundle of three. Customers can add the cost of tracks to their monthly bill or deduct it from prepay credit.

Tracks and videos can be downloaded directly to compatible handsets, or by logging in to 3 Ireland’s music store through your PC. Both options allow you to browse media you have bought already and download it again.

There are some limitations on the tracks, however, with the dreaded DRM raising its head here. You can download the tracks to your handset, but cannot transfer them between handsets.

If you try to circumvent the system and save them to a memory card, you will find the tracks are locked when you try to open them on a new phone. You can download them again to the new handset using the “My media” catalogue. If you want to burn your tracks to a CD, you will have to download the licences from 3 by playing the track while connected to the internet.

Vodafone Ireland

(www.vodafone.ie)

Vodafone offers a similar service to its customers, with tracks from both international artists such as Oasis and Lady GaGa, and Irish acts, including Pat Shortt and the Blizzards.

Tracks are priced from €1.99 each, with albums costing from €7.99. Like 3, Vodafone customers charge the tracks to their monthly bill or have it deducted from call credit. Vodafone offers its customers the option of buying a bundle of credits, which can be used to pay for tracks and could work out cheaper.

Music can be bought via the PC or through a Vodafone Live handset and downloaded to the other at no extra cost.

As with 3, the tracks come with limitations. Each track bought from the store can be copied to 10 CDs. In addition to that, some tracks can only be bought as part of an album.

Nokia Music Store

(music.nokia.ie)

Mobile maker Nokia is one of the manufacturers that has made the leap into the download market; Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow service is not yet available in Ireland. The Finnish mobile firm’s move came as no surprise to those familiar with the mobile music market. It had been making significant moves into the market for some time, and in 2007 launched its Ovi portal, a gateway for Nokia’s games and music content, one element of which was the Nokia Music Store.

The service was launched in Ireland last year, and has a couple of million tracks from major artists to its name. Through the store, Nokia owners can access download and streaming services with their handsets or PCs.

To buy music from the comfort of your PC, users download a piece of software from the site

Single tracks cost about €1. A monthly subscription option, which costs €10 per month, gives unlimited PC streaming.