mobile music

Sony Ericsson has tapped Gracenote to power a sideloading-enabled mobile music platform.The new platform includes features such as search and discovery, song identification and playlisting, and is designed to allow the easy transfer of tunes between home music libraries, online …

Infrastructure giant L.M. Ericsson announced it will pay around $417 million for German billing company LHS AG, a move that could pit Ericsson directly against telecom billing heavyweights like Amdocs Ltd. and Convergys Corp.“Operators are quickly moving towards convergent charging …

L.M. Ericsson’s courtship of Turner Broadcasting System International continues to roll on; CNN International, of which Turner is the parent, plans to air six, 60-minute films exploring technology in the future that will be sponsored by the infrastructure powerhouse.The “Just …

Whether it’s through a transistor radio, a Walkman or an iPod, on-the-go music has an impressive track record as a business model. But when it comes to revenues from full-track downloads, their may be little room on the dance floor …

Gadgets beget more gadgets, leading to fun, safety and productivity for consumers and profit for all. What’s not to love about that? New figures for the accessory market place its ascendance in context and underscore how handset vendors and network …

It’s getting very noisy in the wireless industry. Carriers are practically shouting their wares on TV, radio, the Internet and in newspapers. Indeed, an article in Advertising Age, an RCR Wireless News sister newspaper, estimates the nationwide wireless carriers spend …

The handset market in the United States in the first quarter grew 12% over the year-ago quarter, with the sale of about 39 million units valued at nearly $3 billion, according to The NPD Group. That growth is roughly similar …

Verizon Wireless is hoping to spur its full-track mobile music sales with a new music-identification application.The carrier launched Vcast Song ID, allowing users to play a tune into their phone to discover the name of the song as well as …

Napster announced a deal to bring on-demand subscription music services to Motorola Inc.’s entire line of cellphones.The digital music company said it will work with Motorola to promote the mobile music offerings in North America, the United Kingdom and Germany. …

Few music companies have pursued mobile as aggressively as The Orchard Enterprises Inc. The New York-based company serves as a kind of digital music aggregator, distributing content from dozens of independent record labels and more than 14.000 artists from Bing …

L.M. Ericsson announced that it has completed its public cash offer to acquire all remaining shares of Norway’s Tandberg Television. A finalized settlement for shares submitted in the offer is expected to close this week.Immediately following the settlement, Ericsson plans …

Napster L.L.C. said it will team with Tower Records Japan on its first over-the-air, full-track mobile music service.NTT DoCoMo Inc. will be the first operator to market the mobile service, which will expand the Napster To Go offering beyond sideloading …

The U.S. ringtone market will dip 8 percent this year as the novelty fades and users learn to create their own mobile music clips, according to Broadcast Music Inc.BMI predicted that ringtones will generate $550 million in retail sales in …

The annual CTIA show is always a good time to take stock on where the domestic wireless industry has been over the previous 12 months, and where it’s headed over the next 12. This year’s event in Orlando, Fla., was …

ORLANDO, Fla.-Sprint Nextel Corp. shook up its mobile music service to be more competitive, and announced an expansion of its joint venture with its cable partners.The music offering includes the new Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. SPH-m620 phone, dubbed Upstage, that …

Openwave Systems Inc. has put up the ‘for sale’ sign. The question is, who wants it?The Redwood City, Calif.-based developer last week announced the resignation of CEO David Peterschmidt and said it has retained Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser …

While the wireless world and “Apple fanboys” wait breathlessly for the iPhone, Daren Tsui is hoping to turn mass-market phones already on the market into on-the-go digital music players.The CEO of mSpot this week plans to unveil its Remix software, …

L.M. Ericsson bid $1.4 billion in cash in a hostile move to acquire Norway’s Tandberg Television.The Swedish infrastructure company, which is moving aggressively into the digital content space, topped a previous offer from Arris Group Inc., an Atlanta-area provider of …

In these early days of mobile entertainment, full-track download services are a bit like the weather: everyone complains about them, but no one seems to be doing much about them.While carriers such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless have …

BARCELONA, Spain-The show is in Spain, but last week’s 3GSM World Congress was all about emerging markets in Africa, Asia and South America.After rising by an average of 25 percent for the last three years, global handset growth will slow …

Idle hands may be the devil’s domain, but carriers and mobile marketing companies are laying claim to the idle screen.The wireless industry is hoping to use the idle screen-the display of a phone while it isn’t in use-as kind of …

The fight against digital rights management gained an unlikely backer as Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called for record companies to offer music without anti-piracy software.Jobs, in an open letter posted on Apple’s Web site, claimed that a variety of …

INFRASTRUCTURE POWERHOUSE L.M. ERICSSON became the latest network maker to try its hand in the content arena. Ericsson, the world’s largest equipment manufacturer, announced a partnership with Turner Broadcasting System International to develop and deliver Turner’s suite of news and …

The fight against digital rights management gained an unlikely backer as Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called for record companies to offer music without anti-piracy software.Jobs, in an open letter posted on Apple’s Web site, claimed that a variety of …

Hip-hop tunes continue to dominate the U.S. ringtone market, according to new information from content provider 9 Squared.Rap tunes accounted for eight of the top ten ringtones sold by the MonsterMob Group Co. subsidiary last year, with Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’” earning …