OnMobile Launches Music Download Service On Airtel & BSNL

OnMobile has launched a music download service on Airtel and BSNL which allows consumers to download songs to their mobile phones, reports RadioandMusic.com.

The report states that the service was launched in February end on BSNL and on March 1 on Airtel and allows subscribers of both the operators to head over to their respective operator stores and download full songs.

Remember that Airtel already has a mobile music store in place, which had claimed to have registered over 150 million mobile music downloads in 2012. So its not clear what kind of partnership has OnMobile inked with the operator to launch this service. We have contacted OnMobile regarding this and will update the story when we hear from them.

OnMobile content head Atul Churamani however noted the existence of this music service to the publication, but he claimed that this music service is the first consolidated offering from the Indian music industry, as indicated by the report. The company also claims to have partnered with various music labels and operators for this initiative, but didn’t disclose any specific names.

Remember that Hungama also has tie-ups with all major telcos for content on operator portals and has been monetizing mobile content such as ringtones, video downloads, wallpapers, among others, for quite some time now. It would be therefore interesting to see how OnMobile differentiate its music service in the country.

Other Developments: In January 2013, Aircel had launched a music download service called Pocket Music International, which allowed Aircel subscribers to visit the WAP portal music.pocketinternet.in on their mobile handset and download full songs. The service offered 5 songs for download on a daily subscription fee of Rs 5.

Besides this, Nokia currently offers operator billing on Nokia Music Store for Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance Communications subscribers. Hungama is another player that has been monetizing majorly through mobile content such as ringtones, video downloads, and wallpapers among others while online music streaming site Dhingana was also looking to ink telco tie-ups to offer a subscription service to its customers.

Nikhil Adds: While OnMobile might be trying to safeguard its music and RBT revenues, one should not forget that the key for the company is to launch data products, which it had said during last quarter’s conference call that it would do. We are yet to see these data products in the Indian market, and OnMobile needs to transition from being just an RBT business, because that model won’t sustain them in India, given the TRAI regulations.