I noticed last week that Omnifone launched their MusicStation service. Not in the UK, but abroad. Way abroad. Sweden to be precise.
They’ve got 30 mobile operators taking the service around the world, reaching a potential 100 million users.
Although I am assuming that each of these mobile operators also have their own shite, rubbish, half-baked iTunes-wannabe live on their user portals as well? (I’ll always remember Orange’s absolutely abysmal music service for WindowsMobile SPV users.) If so, I wonder how the operators are reconciling launching MusicStation to compete with — and quite possibly kill — their own £3 quid a ringtone or £3 quid a download music services?
Unclear.
MusicStation definitely looks like an interesting concept. I was a little bit disappointed though… or perhaps, hugely disappointed, (depending on the level of geekiness I’m exhibiting at the time) when I read the news and flew off to the MusicStation site to get a copy. I knew it was operator-supplied.. but I somehow thought you would be able to also download it to your handset as well.
Alas no — further, if you’re interested in getting it, well stuff you. Stuff you with bells on. 
That’s the site’s message at the moment because it’s WHERE section reads:
Omnifone is partnering with operators with networks in the following countries:
… and goes on to list a load of countries such as the UK. I tried clicking and found that ‘UK’ is just a text link.
It really is operator supplied. I’ll need to sit like a good boy, patient, smiling and with my hands on my lap, until my operator(s) deign to introduce the service to me.
UK operator 3 is one of the biggest sellers of digital music in the UK. Quoting from a release I covered about their music service last year:
3 now represent 10.5% of the total UK singles market and stand second only to iTunes in UK digital music sales.
Ergo I doubt 3 will want to get into bed with MusicStation. You never know, though.
It’s a good strategy, anyway, using the how-do-we-increase-ARPU mobile operators to reach 100 million potential users for MusicStation. The negative is that most operators have spent the last three to four years flogging uber-shit music services to pissed-off customers, many of whom will be delighted iTunes users. All of whom, I’m willing to bet, would reaaaaally like an iPhone. (A recent study I read this week reckoned that 19 million Americans want an iPhone…)
The history doesn’t bode well. If consumers have long memories of being fleeced £3 for a crap quality music track then they’re going to be very suspect of any music-related service being hawked via their airtime provider. But you don’t need to convert many over before you’ve got a fairly decent income and a bit of traction.
Still, if you’ve got a good handset and you want music on your handset — properly — MusicStation appears to be a rather good solution.
£1.99 a week or a tenner a month to have Napster style access to music on your handset.
Hmm. Four or five months of this and you’d have spent enough to get a Shuffle. Your own Shuffle. Yet, this pricepoint is low enough to be appealing to many — to the masses — who don’t want to blow more money on another device. Looking at it in terms of an album purchase — for the cost of buying a CD album, you can have access to tens of thousands of albums for the same price.
It kills Napster doesn’t it? In concept, anyway. They’ve been wholly negligent with mobile devices, Napster. To this day, their Napster-to-Go service still only works on a few MP3 players and cumbersome Windows Mobile handsets.
What’s your viewpoint on MusicPhone?
Update: Omnifone’s not due out until October…
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