Avec Mobile: Downloading songs from an online music store directly to a phone

Downloading songs from an online music store directly to a phone

1 February 2006

We have been downloading ringtones to our phone from online services for ages (before we discovered that we can make our own ringtones for free). Now, as music phones that can play MP3 songs are becoming more popular, why don't we download full tracks directly to the phone from online music shops? We powered up our smartphone and tried services that charge for downloading tracks and other services that offer free downloads and were surprised at what we discovered.

Two techniques are commonly used for getting music to the phone: copying MP3 songs from a computer to the phone or downloading tunes directly to the phone over a mobile network. We have explained how you can copy music from a computer to the phone, but now we want to find out if there are services that let us download tracks directly to the phone.

We tested three different sources: online music shops that can be accessed on an Internet browser, web pages that promote songs recorded primarily by new artists and digital music stores provided by phone network operators.

Previously, we had learned the hard way that we'll only pay for music downloads that are available in MP3 format, and that's what we recommend for everyone who wants to listen to purchased tracks in the future as well. The reason for this is that practically all devices that can play digital music, can play MP3 and this is the most likely format to be played on devices in the near future.

MP3 music download stores

Music stores that provide MP3 songs, such as Bleep, Eclassical, Emusic and Wippit are easy to access on a computer, but trying to access them on a phone is another matter. We used a Symbian OS/S60 smartphone, Opera browser and GPRS connection to download music directly from the Internet to the phone, but despite the setup the results were poor.

The phone’s small screen simply can't display hundreds of pictures and other attractions the stores tend to display on their pages. Additionally, registration and paying for songs proved to be impossible on a phone.

Artistdirect is on the right track in their attempt to create mobile device–friendly pages at: www.artistdirect.com/mobile. At the moment, you can only browse artist biographies and discographies on those pages.

: Epitonic

Free MP3 downloads

So, we couldn't pay for MP3 music that we wanted to download to our smartphone, but maybe it would be possible to find free MP3 songs. Internet pages that promote new artists often offer free MP3 music for you to get to know the artists. Plenty of such web pages can be found, Soundclick and PureVolume to name a few, but downloading songs directly to the phone proved to be impossible from most pages.

: Peoplesound

Now, the good news: Epitonic and Peoplesound are examples of services that can be accessed on a smartphone. Best of all, we managed to download free MP3 songs to the phone. Just remember that the download will cause network traffic and depending on your data subscription plan, you may have to pay for it.

Epitonic and Peoplesound MP3 download pages are readily accessible on a phone, the pages load fast enough and navigation is manageable. First, register to the service on your computer so that you only have to login to the pages when you want to download tracks to your phone.

Music download services by network operators

Many phone network operators have introduced music download services for their subscribers. Typically, the service is limited to one or two phone models only and you have to pay a hefty price for the privilege. Also, you may be restricted to listening to the purchased song only on your phone. For example, the copy-protection scheme that Sprint applies prevents you from playing the tracks on a computer.

People in South Korea and Japan have had modern 3G networks and phones available for a longer time than other regions and the high-speed networks in those countries have made it easier to provide music downloads as well as other new services. Having said that, a broadband-speed 3G phone is not necessary for downloading music. For instance, we used an ordinary GPRS network for downloading from Epitonic and Peoplesound.

Network operator 3 provides 3G network services in many countries and has made music tracks and videos available for download. When you buy a track and download it to your phone, you get an activation key for downloading the same song to your computer as well. Nonetheless, the price is high for a song. Vodafone offers music downloads for phones in a similar manner as 3 in many countries across the world. There are many others, like O2 that have opened a music shop, so if this feels the right approach for you, check the status with your operator.

At the moment in the US, the following online music stores are available: Sprint Music Store and Verizon V Cast Music.

The pricing of mobile music is a peculiar business. For some reason, service providers believe that phone owners are willing to pay more for a song than computer users. Pricing for songs vary, but they are consistently more expensive (double or even triple the price) than, for example, downloads from iTunes.

Our worst experience in the process of downloading music was finding tracks we wanted and we could download using only the phone. Navigating the download pages and signing up for the download service were not always smooth, either.

The best experience in our music shopping was when we discovered that free services provided better service for phones than commercial services. Once we had ensured that our data subscription plan allowed downloading megabytes worth of MP3 tunes, we just left the phone running and downloading in its own pace (it takes a few minutes for an MP3 song of average length and quality to download). After all the trouble, listening to the music on the phone was almost as much fun as receiving our first picture message.