Mobile software company Ubiquity Software has unveiled what it claims is the world's first mobile multimedia music sharing application at the 3GSM World Congress, which opened in Barcelona this morning.
Mobile music sharing allows subscribers to share music with friends, while meeting digital rights management (DRM) requirements advocated by the music industry. Ubiquity says that mobile music sharing could increase both voice and data revenues for mobile operators, by stimulating the sharing of music and enabling conversations about the latest music releases among communities of subscribers.
Ubiquity's music sharing application enables consumers with 2.5G and 3G mobile phones to 'meet' via a conference call to listen to music as if they were in the same room. It also enables service providers to quickly develop and deploy music sharing services. Rather than offering a pre-built music sharing solutions that restrict service provider offerings, Ubiquity provides an extensible programming environment that has no such limits, enabling carriers to choose the features and functions they want in order to deliver a customized music sharing service.
Mobile music sharing enables subscribers to instantly share music with other 'buddies' based on their presence and availability. A subscriber initiates an instant messaging (IM) session or conference call to notify his/her friends of a new song they've just purchased. From within the IM session, a user can initiate a conference in order to allow the group to communicate in real time about the music file, which is played during the group's audio conference session. Optionally, operators can extend an offer to participants to buy the shared music file at the end of the call via pop-up messages.
This application offers service providers a way to seamlessly blend voice and IM communications to trigger viral marketing for MP3 music downloads as well as driving  additional voice minutes usage.
"We are offering service providers around the world the power to deploy instant group communications, fostering a community of music sharing subscribers that will boost ARPU and loyalty" says John Hart, VP of Product Line Management at Ubiquity Software. "Operators can generate more voice, data and mobile music sales and increase the uptake of their offerings within the youth market, while for the subscriber, mobile music sharing finally enables sharing of mobile music with peers, something that has been missing from current mobile phone applications."