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The service will let users directly download an unlimited number of tracks to their mobile phones for a small weekly fee from wherever they are. It has signed content deals with the four major record companies and has distribution agreements with 30 mobile operators

Omnifone, the company running the service, said that it will be suitable for more then three in every four mobile handsets already available in the market.

It will first launch in Sweden, with Scandinavian operator Telenor, and then roll out across Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa in the coming weeks. Omnifone is targeting 100 million phones in a year and can offer over one million songs.

'It's hard to imagine a more compelling music experience on mobile than MusicStation,' Rob Wells, of Universal Music Group's digital division said. 'It works on almost any phone, giving consumers the freedom to choose whatever device they want and it allows downloads wherever those consumers are.'

Omnifone said the service would be available on all 2.5G and 3G music compatible mobiles, which currently accounts for approximately 80 per cent of the handsets sold in Western Europe.

It

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will offer unlimited track downloads at €2.99 per week, or £1.99 in the UK, which includes data traffic charges.

Omnifone chief executive Rob Lewis explained that it would take between one and 15 seconds to download a track and that phones could store between 100 and a few thousand depending on the phone.

'We believe that by providing consumers with the ultimate music freedom of unlimited access to music, wherever a user is, on whatever phone they buy, MusicStation is delivering the most compelling consumer proposition in digital music today,' he said.

Consumers will initially be limited to listening to the tracks through their phones as Omnifone's DRM bans users from transferring music to computers, MP3 players or other digital gadgets. The firm said it will launch a parallel PC version shortly.

Users can keep the tracks for as long as they keep their subscription which is added to their phone bills. Tracks will reappear if consumers renew their subscriptions, replace or upgrade a phone.

Music on mobile phones has been around for several years, but most music on phones is currently ripped from CDs and files swapped on the Internet, not sold by operators over their wireless networks. The iPhone has caused mobile companies concern because Apple aims to sell music for iPhone through its iTunes website, bypassing mobile carriers.

What are your thoughts on this service, and on downloading music straight to a phone, as opposed to via a PC? Leave a comment via the 'Add Comment' link below.

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