Music publisher EMI and mobile entertainment provider Wireless Entertainment Services (WES) have premiered a music video on a wireless handset for the first time. The companies showed a video from EMI’s new signing ‘Firestorm’ as part of Nokia’s launch of the 6650 W-CDMA handset.

The clip can be forwarded to other handsets with MMS capabilities and a compatible video player. Music videos and film trailers are being touted as applications which will drive the adoption of wireless video services.

“The music industry is constantly on the lookout for new marketing channels and ways to deliver music to the consumer. EMI wants to be at the forefront of this development. The fight for media space gets fiercer by the day, driving the need to find new alternative ways of conveying marketing messages. Multimedia terminals are perfect for the needs of the music industry, in terms of both technological characteristics and user profiles,” commented EMI Finland Marketing Director, Mr. Timo Kuoppamäki. “I see that choosing our new rising talent ‘Firevision’ to partner in this enterprise reflects all parties’ open attitudes towards new and emerging trends.”

Insight

Sonera ran a trial about 18 months ago where it supplied users with iPaqs connected to its HSCSD network and a range of mobile video services. Music videos were the most popular type of content. You only have to look at the enthusiasm for MP3 downloads, music television channels and portable music players to recognise a massive opportunity for delivering this content to mobile handsets.

However, there are major challenges to overcome, particularly as regards billing and rights management. What happens if a user forwards a video clip they’ve purchased to their friend via MMS. Does the sender simply pay a standard MMS transmission charge or does the recipient pay the purchase price for the video clip? There are both business and technological issues which need to be addressed. This will be an inherently viral service – operators and publishers must establish standard business models before they have another Napster on their hands.