MusicStation
Encyclopedia
MusicStation is a music service platform developed by Omnifone
Omnifone
Omnifone is an independent provider of cloud based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers and internet service providers including RIM,Sony,HP, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Telenor, Hutchison Telecom and Vodacom....

. The cloud
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

 based platform works across a number of different digital device platforms
Platform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...

 and is tailored specifically for various partners including RIM
Research In Motion
Research In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...

, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

, Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

, HP, BSkyB, Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...

, Telenor
Telenor
Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

, Hutchison Telecom and Vodacom
Vodacom
Vodacom is a pan-African mobile telecommunications company, and was the 1st cellular network in South Africa. It provides GSM service to more than 35 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Revenue for the year ended 31 March 2008...

.

Services

In February 2009 Omnifone introduced MusicStation Next Generation, a white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...

 unlimited music audio and video download and streaming solution for ISPs and consumer electronics device vendors. The cloud based solution offers interoperable music on a wide range of connected devices, including home entertainment systems, gaming consoles, and car audio
Car audio
Car audio/video , auto radio, mobile audio, 12-volt and other terms are used to describe the sound or video system fitted in an automobile. While 12-volt audio and video systems are also used, marketed, or manufactured for marine, aviation, and buses, this article focuses on cars as the most common...

 systems.

MusicStation Max is a white label pre-licensed music service development programme for mobile device vendors. Omnifone partners with device vendors to develop MusicStation Max powered devices pre-licensed for unlimited music downloads. The service enables users to download, play and share unlimited amounts of music directly on their device.

The service enables users and keep a specific amount their favourite music at the end of their contract. MusicStation Max is interoperable with MusicStation Desktop Edition with both services provided by partners across multiple territories.

MusicStation Max allows users at the end of the subscription to migrate their music to their next MusicStation Max device and continue access to unlimited music downloads or to keep playing their favourite tracks. The first handset vendor signed up for MusicStation Max is Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

 for PlayNow plus
PlayNow
PlayNow is Sony Ericsson's download service for media including music, games, ringtones, wallpapers and themes. It was introduced in February 2004 as a way for owners of SE phones to listen to and directly purchase ringtones. It was rolled out into 32 countries....

. Omnifone has reported that it is in talks with a number of vendors for MusicStation Max.

Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

's PlayNow
PlayNow
PlayNow is Sony Ericsson's download service for media including music, games, ringtones, wallpapers and themes. It was introduced in February 2004 as a way for owners of SE phones to listen to and directly purchase ringtones. It was rolled out into 32 countries....

 services uses MusicStation Max. The first Walkman
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...

 handsets with PlayNow plus were launched on 24 November 2008 by Telenor
Telenor
Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

 in Sweden. Sony Ericsson has rolled out the service in 2009 with Swisscom
Swisscom
Swisscom AG is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Along with Swiss Post, it is a successor company to the former state-owned PTT. Its headquarters are located at Worblaufen near Bern...

 in Switzerland, Singtel in Singapore and Orange in Austria with further launches planned with mobile carriers internationally.

MusicStation Desktop Edition enables consumers to download, play and share music, direct to their desktop computer. The service is provided in partnership with personal computer vendors, mobile carrier networks, and broadband providers. The service offers music recommendations, connected community services and features, and an automatic back-up of private and public playlists to the cloud, plus online search and discovery capabilities. The service is able to synchronise with all other MusicStation-powered services and mobile devices via the cloud.

In April 2009 Hutchison Telecom became the first Omnifone partner to introduce MusicStation Desktop Edition to users in Hong Kong on its 3
Hutchison 3G
3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...

 network.

Omnifone’s MusicStation was the first subscription based unlimited music download service available on mobiles in the UK launching with Vodafone in November 2007.

In June 2008, Omnifone announced that MusicStation had become the largest subscription based unlimited music download service in the UK within seven months of launching on Vodafone.

Availability of licensed content from major labels

Country Universal Sony EMI Warner
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 
Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 
Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 
France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 
Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 
Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 
Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 
The Netherlands 
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 
Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 
South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 
Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 
Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 
Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 

History

14th January 2003: British Entrepreneurs Rob Lewis
Rob Lewis (entrepreneur)
Rob Lewis is an English businessman and serial entrepreneur. Lewis has established several successful publishing and technology ventures including Business & Technology magazine, Cromwell Media, Silicon Media Group and most recently Omnifone. Lewis is a 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the...

, Phil Sant and Mark Knight form Omnifone

12th February 2007: Omnifone announces MusicStation

14th June 2007: MusicStation goes live with its first rollout in Sweden with Telenor

22nd October 2007: MusicStation launches in Hong Kong with 3

1st November 2007: MusicStation launches in South Africa with Vodacom

1st November 2007: MusicStation launches in the UK with Vodafone

12th February 2008: Omnifone launches MusicStation Max, a pre-licensed unlimited music phone development programme with LG signed up as a handset manufacturer

15th September 2008: MusicStation launches in New Zealand with Vodafone

22nd September 2008: MusicStation launches in Australia with Vodafone

24th September 2008: Omnifone announces partnership with Sony Ericsson to power PlayNow plus, its pre-licensed unlimited downloads service across Walkman mobiles

14th November 2008: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Sweden with Telenor

8th January 2009: Omnifone announces partnership with Gracenote to bring unlimited music to multiple device platforms

12th January 2009: Omnifone powered in-car entertainment system CarStars wins CNET ‘Best of CES’ Car Tech award at the 2009 International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas; the largest consumer electronics event in the world

16th February 2009: Omnifone announces MusicStation Next Generation unlimited music service for ISPs to fight piracy online, confirming reports that it is in discussions with BSkyB as its first ISP customer

13th March 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Switzerland with Swisscom

2nd April 2009: MusicStation Desktop Edition launches in Hong Kong

23rd April 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Singapore with Singtel

9th June 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Austria with Orange

8th September 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in The Netherlands with T-Mobile

14th October 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Hungary with T-Mobile

19th October 2009: BSkyB launches Sky Songs streaming and downloads service in the UK

23rd October 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Brazil with Vivo

9th November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Mexico with Telcel

20th November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Croatia with T-Mobile

21st November 2009: Sony Ericsson launches PlayNow plus in Singapore with M1

8th January 2010: Omnifone extends relationship with Gracenote, allows for cloud-based music solutions in more than 30 countries in 2010

25th January 2010: Omnifone announces partnership with HP for MusicStation on PCs in 10 countries across Europe

15th February 2010: Omnifone announces MusicStation for Android

16th February 2010: Omnifone first to encode its global music catalogue into Dolby Pulse file format for cloud based digital music services in 2010

22nd December 2010: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in the UK and Ireland

22nd January 2011: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in France, Germany, Italy and Spain

17th February 2011: Sony launches Q Music Unlimited cloud music service powered by Omnifone in the US, Australia and New Zealand

25th August 2011: RIM launches BBM Music social music service in beta - powered by Omnifone in the US, Canada and the UK

Awards

Omnifone has won a number of awards for MusicStation including:

Oracle UK Partner Awards 2009 – Most Innovative use of Oracle Technology

CNET ‘Best of CES’ Car Tech Award 2009 – with Gracenote

Global Mobile Awards 2008 – Best Mobile Music Service Award

Mobile Industry Awards 2008 – Best Mobile Internet Service

Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Meffys 2007 – Music Service Award Meffy

Juniper Research Future Music Awards 2008 – Gold Award for Mobile Music

MCA (Mobile Content Awards) 2008: Silver Award: Best entertainment service

MAMA (Mobile Advertising & Marketing Awards) 2008: Gold Award: Most Effective Use of Music

See also:

Omnifone
Omnifone
Omnifone is an independent provider of cloud based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers and internet service providers including RIM,Sony,HP, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Telenor, Hutchison Telecom and Vodacom....



Rob Lewis
Rob Lewis (entrepreneur)
Rob Lewis is an English businessman and serial entrepreneur. Lewis has established several successful publishing and technology ventures including Business & Technology magazine, Cromwell Media, Silicon Media Group and most recently Omnifone. Lewis is a 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the...



Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

 PlayNow
PlayNow
PlayNow is Sony Ericsson's download service for media including music, games, ringtones, wallpapers and themes. It was introduced in February 2004 as a way for owners of SE phones to listen to and directly purchase ringtones. It was rolled out into 32 countries....

plus

External links


Further links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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