Musical mobiles

The iPhone is coming, and its imitators are already here. So is it time to bin your MP3 player and put all your music on your phone? Brian Boydreports on mobile downloads

JAPAN is the new model for the music industry. Total music sales in the country increased by 1 per cent last year, even as all other countries reported a decrease. The reason for the turnaround is largely due to the increase in mobile phone music downloads. In the rest of the world, the model is still to have both an MP3 player and a mobile, but will all that change soon - and will we have any choice in the matter?

HOW DO THESE PHONES WORK?

The newer, glitzier range of mobiles are all "music-enhanced", meaning they allow you to download a song straight to your phone, instead of to your computer (as you do with iTunes, for example).

The process is very simple and not very different to using iTunes or any of its rivals. Sound quality and all other variables remain similar. The speed of mobile downloads can vary, depending on how super-dooper your phone is and which service you are using. It can be painfully slow, but at the top end of the market you can download an entire album in just over a minute.

The idea of direct phone downloading received a substantial boost from the launch of the Apple iPhone (still not in Ireland), which is, among other things, a joint phone and MP3 device.

APART FROM THE iPHONE, WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

The other significant players are Nokia and Vodafone - the former a phone manufacturer, the latter a service provider. Nokia has launched its impressive-looking Nokia Music Store, which allows you to download tracks directly to a music-enhanced Nokia phone. The big showcase phone model here is the Nokia N81, the company's rival to the iPhone. Vodafone has teamed up with the Universal record label to launch Music Station, a quick and comprehensive service.

SO IS EVERYONE IN ON THE MUSIC-DIRECT-TO-PHONE ACT?

The music download market is one of the few growth areas in the music industry. It's not just the service providers such as 02 who are offering this service; so do most phone manufacturers. The latest big launch has been by Sony Ericsson, which now has a range of music-enabled phones.

The Apple iPhone is being offered as the "ultimate, all-in-one" device, and most telecommunications companies are now either offering or preparing to offer a similar device.

The music industry is behind it for the simple reason that the people most likely to have and use music-capable phones are the younger demographic - the same people who buy the most music downloads. Currently, an average of four in 10 mobiles on the market are music-capable.

IS ONE SERVICE BETTER THAN THE OTHERS?

That's like asking if O2 is better than Vodafone or if Nokia is better than Sony Ericsson. Different companies offer different packages. With some you pay a subscription and can download an unlimited amount of music; with others you pay for each individual download. Deciding which one is best for you is equivalent to deciding which mobile phone tariff you should sign up to. It all depends on how often you will want to download directly to your phone.

Some packages are cheaper than iTunes and some dearer, but you can't really carry out direct comparisons because some of the mobile music packages offer a certain amount of free downloads. Also, the price-per-download may decrease depending on how much you use the service.

ARE ALL SONGS AVAILABLE ON ALL SERVICES?

The situation is the same as in the MP3 market, in that all the online music stores carry all the big-selling singles and albums, but some are better than others at offering that obscure 1980s B-side.

WILL I BE THROWING AWAY MY MP3 PLAYER ANYTIME SOON?

Unlikely. This is still a very small market. A US study last year found that, in a survey of people with music-capable phones, only 5 per cent had moved music from their PCs onto their phones and only 2 per cent downloaded directly to their phones.

The question is whether that has to do with a lack of demand or a lack of awareness of the newer phone models. The industry believes it's a lack of awareness, and that the reason the Japanese are downloading so much onto their mobiles is because they have the most technologically advanced phones.

It is predicted that the dual MP3-plus-mobile-phone model will continue for a year or two. After that more people will begin using their phones as MP3 players. Given that the music-on-your-phone service has been available for a few years only, figures suggest that it is a real growth area. As yet, though, not everyone is aware it exists - and certainly not to such a developed extent.

AM I BEING PUSHED INTO THIS? I DON'T REALLY WANT TO USE MY PHONE AS MY MUSIC DEVICE

Put it this way: the mobile operators and the music industry, according to a recent Telecoms and Media study, are "staking much of their future on this market". What underpins all this is the belief (no doubt researched and double researched) that if you can download music directly to your phone, you will do it more often.

ARE PHONE COMPANIES THE NEW MUSIC INDUSTRY?

All you have to do is to look at Virgin Mobile's sponsorship of the V Festival and 02's sponsorship of the Wireless Music festival, both in the UK, to see how much the telecommunications industry regards music as a vital platform. The phone industry spent heavily in securing 3G licences to allow phones to become "smart" (as in all-purpose devices) and they don't want you using your phone just for calling - they want the music download market as well. How well they fare will all be down to pricing and ease of use.

As the technologies continue to advance (and download times are getting quicker all the time) and more people sign up to the service, prices should (in theory) fall. So it will simply make more sense to use your phone as your MP3 player.