Melodeo wants to stream your iTunes library to your mobile phone
Mobile music is The Future – or so the people selling whizzy music phones would like us to believe. The idea of walking round with your entire music collection stored on your mobile is a seductive one, epitomised by the 4GB and 8GB iPhones that go on sale in the US later this month.
But what if your music collection is more than 8GB in size? My iTunes reckons it’s got 37.54GB worth of music, which ain’t gonna fit into any mobile phone soon. Mobile music firm Melodeo says it has the answer though, with a new streaming service that it’s planning to launch later this year.
Here’s how it’ll work: you’ll upload a list of what’s in your iTunes library to Melodeo, which will then allow you to stream any of those songs to your mobile phone (it could also work for your work PC or your laptop, I guess).
Because the music isn’t stored on your phone, it counts as a streaming service rather than a download service, which means Melodeo has to pay less money to the record labels and publishers, thus allowing it to offer the service at a cheaper price to users. That’s the theory, anyhow – even Melodeo admits the current legal guidelines aren’t always “crystal clear”.
Melodeo aims to launch the service in 6-12 weeks, most likely in the US, where the firm already works with mobile operators on music services. It’s an intriguing idea, although it could face competition from wider subscription services that let you stream ANY song to your phone if you pay a monthly fee.
Melodeo website (via Reuters)
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