Gerd Leonhard's Blog on The Future of Music, Media & Entertainment

It is starting: the cell phone as MP3 juke box

From Digital Music News:
"More Controversy in South Korea Over MP3 Phones
Controversy continues in South Korea over the growing mp3 phone market, with new devices allowing users to transfer music directly from their computers onto their handhelds. Most recently, leading South Korean pop stars protested in front of the offices of mobile manufacturer LG, claiming that the recently released LP3000 series phones don`t do enough to protect music copyrights. The phones resemble the functionality of mp3 players like the iPod, which allow the transfer of unauthorized tracks without DRM
restrictions. LG has declined to install DRM restrictions in its devices, but has offered to compensate rights holders with lump sum payments that do not come directly from consumers...." Boy, if we could channel this deep interest in music into a viable economic model - imagine super distribution via cell phones. 1.5 BILLION people sharing music, forward links / playlists, or actual tracks. For that to happen, we need much smarter, more unobtrusive Rights Management technologies (well... there are some, already;), and we need lower prices, across the board. And: we need some real collaboration between all involved parties.

Nokia HP Visual Radio

The concept of broadcasting terrestrial radio to cell phones while using GPRS as a 2nd, and back-channel, is very interesting - if Nokia's / HPs idea actually takes off, radio will never be the same - or will it go the way of the Nokia Ngage... Phil Leigh's Inside Digital Media has a great streaming media presentation by HP's Felice Swapp. Go here and click on the HP logo --- thanks Phil!