August launch for Jamster Music

News

Stuart O'Brien Jul 12 2006, 1:00pm

Jamster will debut its full track music download service in Germany in August, with a wider European rollout to follow soon after.

The direct-to-consumer Jamster Music service will offer 500,000 songs on both a pay per download and rental basis, with purchases made via a browsable Java client that also enables chat and playlist sharing.

The service - which Jamster has built itself, DRM and all - is also dual download, enabling consumers listen to bought or rented music on a mobile phone or PC and burn tracks to CD.

Though details of participating labels have not been confirmed, Jamster CEO Markus Berger-de-Leon told ME he is confident that all the majors will be on board:

"This a fully converged mobile music service that gives record labels direct access to their audience. I think consumers will notice a difference right away in terms of the user experience offered by the Java client compared to the WAP-based music download services offered by many operators."

The 'all you can eat' rental option is likely to cost Euro15 a month, with individual tracks priced between 99 cents and Euro1.49. Jamster will use operator direct billing in Germany rather PSMS and is in discussions with operators in other countries to so the same where possible.

Crucially the company will not initially be bundling data charges with the service, which could render 2-3 megabyte song downloads prohibitive for customers without a suitable tariff.

The UK is likely to be next in line after Germany for a Jamster Music launch, with the company looking to forge marketing partnerships with a number of mainstream music and entertainment brands.

Rival Monstermob launched its full track music service in March under the MobMusic brand.