TOKYO-The mobile music distribution business is going to take off in Japan, according to industry representatives. Some carriers have already revealed their services, while others are promoting field tests in cooperation with vendors.
NTT DoCoMo at the beginning of 2000 established a joint venture with Matsushita Communications, a communications business arm of Matsushita Electric Industrial, targeting to launch commercial music distribution services for PHS terminals in fourth-quarter 2000. Air Media, the joint venture, has been conducting a series of field tests based on the system since May.
Around 1,000 people are participating in the field test, downloading either 30-second introductory pieces or full-length songs on Matsushita’s PHS terminals and listening to the music with a matchbox-shaped music playing device. The system is based on the electronic media distribution (EMD) music distribution technology; SD Memory Card, developed by Matsushita, Toshiba and SanDisk; and PHS technology.
EMD is a music distribution system jointly developed by Matsushita, Universal Music Group, BMG Entertainment and AT&T. Using the SD Memory Card, users download music onto the card and listen to it using PHS terminals or separate music players.
Separately, NTT DoCoMo, in cooperation with Sony and Japan IBM, is developing another music distribution system targeting a service launch also by the end of the year. The system is based on IBM’s EMMS music distribution system; Open MG copyright protection system; Memory Stick, a rival technology from Sony to the SD Memory Card; and Sony’s music player.
DoCoMo has repeatedly said it will launch its music distribution services using both systems this year as part of its effort to select the best system for its third-generation (3G) services. NTT DoCoMo is planing to launch 3G services in May 2001, earlier than any other wireless carrier in the world. Music distribution services are expected to be “killer content” for Japan, according to the country’s wireless carriers.
DDI Pocket, the largest PHS carrier in Japan, recently announced it will launch music distribution services in November. The operator’s services, called Sound Music, will be based on the music distribution platform jointly developed by Hitachi, Nippon Columbia, Fujitsu and Sanyo Electric. The platform, called Keitai-de Music, consists of the MPEG-1/Audio Layer 3 compression system, UDAC-MB copyright protection system and a secure multimedia card.
Sound Music users will download their favorite music pieces from a list via their PHS handsets and listen to the music with the same PHS terminals or separate music players. Vendors are developing PHS terminals that download music, with some terminals having functionality to replay the music and others without such functionality. Users then listen to the music with separate music players.
DDI Pocket’s services have many fringe offerings. Users can listen to a 45-second introduction free for selecting their favorite music, share their favorite music with their friends for merely 10 yen (US$0.09) for each music transfer, find out where the nearest CD shop is and even purchase their favorite CDs from PHS handsets.
The communications fee for downloading music is 13 yen (US$0.12) per minute. The music content fee has not been decided yet, but DDI said it might be around 250 yen (US$2.32) per piece.
Although the service will be provided through PHS networks with a 64 kilobits per second (kbps) data communications speed, it takes around nine to 10 minutes to download a typical music piece of four minutes length. To shorten the time, the carrier is now developing a new PHS system with 128 kbps data transmission speed, and the first PHS terminal with a data card is expected to hit the market in the second quarter of 2001. Using the Sound Music platform, DDI Pocket will also provide comic stories, foreign language learning tapes, speech content and relaxation sounds.
Japan Telecom, the third-largest carrier, announced it will launch music distribution services in December. Japan Telecom services will be initially limited to PC users through fixed lines; however, the carrier will later launch music distribution services at kiosks at train stations and via mobile phones. The carrier is planning to launch mobile-phone offerings in the fourth quarter of 2001.
J-Phone users will download music over a memory card inserted into a mobile phone. J-Phone, the mobile arm of Japan Telecom, collects the music fee at the same time it collects the airtime communications fee. Japan Telecom is targeting to win 10 billion yen (US$93 million) in revenues from the new business, including services for PCs and kiosks in 2003.
Along with music distribution services, Japanese carriers are gearing up motion picture distribution services, which are also strongly believed to be a killer application for 3G services. At CEATEC Japan 2000 in October, the country’s largest exhibition for communications equipment and devices and consumer electronics, vendors demonstrated many 3G conceptual terminals for music distribution services and motion picture distribution services.
