MP3.com introduces new Music IOS idea

MP3.com (www.mp3.com) announced the availability of a variety of tools for developers and consumers, which it is calling its Music InterOperating System (IOS). MP3.com hopes that Music IOS will allow the music business to interoperate in ways previously unavailable by connecting retailers, labels, music players, and hardware and software tools.

MP3.com faced a harrowing year of lawsuits and million dollar settlements last year, but is looking toward its new IOS idea to help start the flow of positive revenue. Music IOS's goal is to streamline the process of buying new music and placing it into an online music locker by completing all of the steps when the consumers initially buys the CD.

MP3.com will have to make deals with online music retailers and brick and mortar stores in order to achieve this vision. The company announced a deal with Tower Records at the beginning of December that allows purchasers of a CD on towerrecords.com to immediately access a streaming version of the CD through a password protected interface, instead of having to wait until the CD arrives.

Other online music locker services are also attempting to rout traffic to their Web sites by providing automatic uploads at the time of purchase, such as Musicbank.com's agreement with Virgin Megastores.

MP3.com has also announced several tools available for developers through MP3DN at (http://developer.mp3.com). to enable consumers to access personal music collections from a variety of Web sites or web-enabled devices.

The first component is the Instant Listening (TM) application-programming interface (API), which is the technology enabling consumers to listen to their purchased music automatically in an online locker. MP3.com, however, must have secured the licensing rights. Currently available on the MP3DN site, the Instant Listening API is intended to add value to developer sites by potentially increasing CD sales and site traffic.

Another element of Music IOS, the new Beam-it (TM) software developers kit (SDK), is also expected to be available for download on the MP3DN site in the near future. The Beam-it SDK is designed to let developers integrate the company's Beam-it service into their software, device or Web site. The Beam-it service lets consumers instantly add licensed portions of their personal CD collection to an online My.MP3 music account in seconds.

MP3.com also announced that they are working on a wireless Transfer2Device service to allow one-step file transfers and playlist management.