O2 Music announces music downloads direct to mobile phone with the launch of the Limited Edition Siemens SX1 with an integrated O2 Music Player on 1 August 2004. Music fans now have the choice of using either the SX1 with fully integrated digital music player or a mobile with a separate device to search, preview, download and play full music tracks over the O2 mobile network.
O2 Music launched Europe’s first ‘over the air’ music download service in November 2003 with the stand alone O2 Digital Music Player, and is currently the only network operator to offer 100,000 full length tracks thanks to established partnerships with Sony Music, Warners, Universal, BMG, AIM Independents and MTV.
Like those with the existing O2 Digital Music Player, O2 music fans opting for the Siemens SX1 are able to search, preview, download and store the latest chart hits and popular music all with their mobile phone, with no need for separate devices, wires, the internet or to give out credit card details online.
The Siemens SX1 comes with a 128MB memory card allowing storage of up to 128 full length tracks. The SX1 also features an integrated VGA camera, Video and Audio Player, FM radio, MultiMediaCard-Slot and tri-band functionality.
O2 Music offers you the very latest tracks from a huge range of music genres such as dance, pop, indie, rock, chill-out, r’n’b, jazz and more, as well as offering exclusive remixes, live and radio versions of tracks, plus pre-releases before they hit the record stores. You can browse through 100,000 tracks by genre or artist or select from any of the top charts including the UK top 10, European top 20, MTV Hits top 10, MTV Dance top 10, MTV Base top 10 (Hip Hop, R&B, Urban Chart), MTV2 top 10 (Rock), Chill out top 10 and NME charts.
The Limited Edition Siemens SX1, boasting an integrated O2 Music Player, is exclusive to O2 in the UK and also has an integrated O2 Active menu that gives customers direct access to O2’s colour multi-media entertainment and information WAP service. O2 Active offers further content for the music enthusiast including music wallpaper, video and TrueTone downloads, charts, gossip and a gigs service allowing customers to enter a postcode or town and get all the latest music events and gigs information with links to buy tickets straight away.
O2 has also recently launched an ‘Artists & Bands’ service featuring mobile sites for ‘hero’ artists. The sites offer ringtones, TrueTones, images, biogs, lyrics, prizes and video links are coming soon. Currently through its relationship with BMG, O2 has official sites for Outkast, Faithless and Dido. This will be rapidly followed up with sites for other acts from other label partners.
Megan Forster, Music Marketing Manager, O2, comments “O2 is stepping out as the clear leader in mobile music with more music content and services on offer than any other network. This is a combination of the launch of Europe’s first mobile music downloads service and the great range of music information and downloads services offered through our O2 Active WAP service.”.
For people that prefer to store their music on a separate device, the O2 Digital Music Player (DMP) is a specially designed player that allows customers to download music onto their mobile phone and start listening in 30 seconds. The removable SD 64MB memory card can store up to 64 tracks, and music files can be transferred to PC. The
O2 DMP can play music in aacPlus and MP3 formats. The O2 Digital Music Player works with many infrared-enabled handsets including the Nokia 7210, 7250i, 8310, 6310i, 6610, 5100 and 3650; Samsung V200 and P400; SonyEricsson T610; and Siemens SL55 and S55.
The O2 Siemens SX1 will be available from 1 August 2004 and will cost £79.99 or will be free on selected pay monthly tariffs from O2 stores across the UK. The O2 Digital Music Player costs £99.99 or free with selected O2 pay monthly tariffs. Downloading music starts from £1 for older tracks and from £1.50 for new music. Searching and previewing (30 seconds) tracks is completely free and standard GPRS browsing rates do not apply when using the O2 Music service.