Mobile network 3 Ireland has launched a new music download service with over 500,000 tracks that can be downloaded simultaneously to your PC and mobile. The company is offering music tracks and full-length videos for 99c a track for the first three months.
The 3MusicStore can be accessed at www.three.ie and is Ireland’s only dual-download to PC and mobile service. It claims to be the first operator to launch its own music chart plus a recommended play section. Currently topping 3’s chart are Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Razorlight and Scissor Sisters.
“In Sweden we’re already outselling iTunes and in the UK sales on 3 account for a massive 10pc of the charts,” said Robert Finnegan, 3 Ireland’s managing director. “With a music-savvy customer base, we’re very excited about the potential for music on 3 and we’re already seeing huge demand for our music downloads.”
Finnegan continued: “We expect huge demand for music at €0.99c per track (directly to 3 mobiles or to PCs).
“From a music industry perspective, we hope that the increase in sales volumes coming from the promotion will prompt the record labels to [to take a] re-look at their wholesale prices and enable 3 to continue to compete equally with the established online and bricks-and-mortar music vendors.”
3 Ireland’s head of music Graeme Slattery explained how the PC-mobile download service works and said it is the only integrated mobile-PC offering in Ireland. “We offer our customers the convenience of being able to download any songs they purchase on their mobiles to their PCs for free. Similarly, any songs purchased from 3’s new online music store can be re-downloaded for free on their mobiles.
“More and more consumers are listening to music on their mobiles and this will just continue to grow as new 3G mobiles add the features of market-leading MP3 players, such as mutli-gigabyte hard drives and integrated music players,” Slattery added.
By John Kennedy
