Meanwhile, Vodafone says that users of its full-track download service, launched last November, have downloaded some 1 million tracks. Now Vodafone is extending its full-song catalog to include some 500,000 tracks. The new catalog will soon be available to Vodafone Live customers in Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

During the first quarter there were also a number of moves from handset vendors operating in the mobile music arena. Not least was Sony Ericsson's unveiling of the W800i Walkman-branded mobile handset on March 1. Up to 150 songs can be stored on the handset, which boasts a digital music player and CD ripping software, in addition to a 2 megapixel camera. The W800i is scheduled for release in July.

In terms of content for music-enabled phones, Ericsson and Warner Music International have announced an agreement covering 28 European countries. The deal is based on use of Ericsson's M-USE solution; a white-label music service aimed at operators for which Ericsson aggregates and hosts content. M-USE is now live with more operators than any other personalized mobile music service in the world.

A key consideration in Warner's choice of M-USE is the platform's advanced implementation of digital rights management. While the record industry is fighting hard to stop piracy, labels are still keen to embrace the positive aspects of file sharing, namely easy access to huge music libraries, sharing files with friends, and the ability to link music to artist information, photos and fan chat rooms.

M-USE tackles digital rights issues by allowing "superdistribution": a way for users to share music while record labels, artists and publishers still get the revenue they are entitled to. The way superdistribution works is by specifying the conditions under which files can be opened and copied. The superdistribution features integrated into M-USE keep track of the files that users copy and allow operators to bill for these too.

Take a closer look at M-USE.