mmO2 is top of the pops

BT’s former mobile unit mmO2 is said to be poised to sign deals with five of the music industry’s largest players within ‘the next few weeks’, as it strives to become a leading light in the market for downloading chart pop music. According to the Financial Times, the agreements, which include deals with heavyweights Universal and EMI, are the clearest indication yet that the music industry is waking up to the fact that CD sales are declining as a result of illegal file sharing on the internet. Music publishers are keen to use the mobile market as a means of establishing legitimate download sites before the practice of pirating music migrates from fixed line internet access users to people with WAP-enabled phones. The two sides hope to capitalise on the newly established 3G networks which offer fast transmission capabilities and offer consumers access to competitively priced, legal music services. Warner, BMG and Sony are also involved in the scheme and will next month introduce an innovative package giving users access to around 5,000 tracks. mmO2 is expected to levy a charge of at least GBP1.50 per track, although users will be able to copy music to their PC and even burn tracks to a CD re-writer; encryption technology will prevent file sharing however. Initially, the compressed files will take up to 90 seconds to download, but this will speed up significantly when mmO2 launches UMTS services later this year.