[photopress:senewsongs.jpg,full,center]
AP image. If you squint you can see an older SE cellphone.
More music news for your Monday afternoon, this time coming to us from Sony Ericsson, maker of cellphones found in recent James Bond movies. The mobile maker has added some 5 million songs to its PlayNow music service. These new songs come from several record labels including Warner, EMI and Sony BMG. Smaller labels were also part of the deal.
I guess now is the age of the music-playing cellphone, as provided by the hardware manufacturers rather than the carriers (see Verizon’s V Cast and the like). Nokia’s been trumpeting its new music program, which has the full support of Universal, and now Sony Ericsson is bolstering its offerings.
In all my subway travels over the years, I think I’ve seen maybe 5-10 people listening to music on their cellphone—a market ready for the taking or merely a disinterested bloc of commuters?