Music to your ears through the phone

By PETER GRIFFIN in Cannes

Music downloads are coming to a phone near you if the mobile industry can sort through the minefield of digital rights management.

Ericsson is using the Sony part of its Sony Ericsson mobile venture relationship to tap the Japanese electronics giant's music division.

The M-Use service allows the downloading of musical ringtones, music video streaming and master tones - which allow people calling your line to listen to a song selected by you instead of a ringing tone.

The service comes as an application on any Sony Ericsson phone or through any Vodafone Live handset.

Around 1000 songs are so far available on M-Use.

Ericsson's head of music applications and content, Svante Holm, said "polyphonic ringtones are bigger business in Europe than the market for CD singles," a sign of the potential market for mobile music download services.

A feature of M-Use was similar to Amazon.com in that it remembered your music tastes by recommending new artists.

But while ringtones and streaming may generate big business, the downloading of entire songs is some way off. That's because so-called digital rights management (DRM) issues have to be worked through to ensure people aren't distributing downloaded songs to friends and flouting copyright law.

"It's a big issue and kind of a pain to be honest. People have got used to getting [music] for free," said Holm.

He expected music downloads to be available in about six months.

Nevertheless, M-Use has attracted at least one mobile operator. Swiss provider Sunrise is offering ringtone downloads, artists pictures and streaming audio.

Around 150 Swiss Francs ($173) will buy you two pictures of an artist and 30 seconds of audio.