This month, we go inside the AT&T Wireless mMode online music store to see how their customers can research, preview, and purchase music through their cell phones. After making a purchase, customers download the digital media to their PCs and if they own a portable device, such as a Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC or Smartphone, they can sync the music to the device and take their music with them.
Brian Wilson of AT&T Wireless, David Hostetter of Loudeye (provider of the content and music-store infrastructure), and Matt Jubelirer (Windows Media Product Manager for Consumer Electronics) describe typical customer scenarios for using the online music service. Then, they go behind the scenes to show how the partnerships were formed to create and run the service.
Take a tour of the music service from the point of view of a customer. Locate, preview, and purchase some music on a Smartphone, and then download it to a PC and copy it back to the phone.
Learn about the partnerships that AT&T Wireless developed with external companies to build and maintain the online music service. The key partner Loudeye talks about challenges on the content side.
David Hostetter from Loudeye talks about keeping it simple, seamless, and secure, and making sure everything about the design and execution is aimed at providing the best user experience.
In the wireless music service, the following Windows Media technologies play a key role:
The Windows Media Audio codec is used to encode the preview and download files.
Windows Media Services is used to stream preview content to the wireless devices.
Windows Media Player is used to play content on the wireless device and on the PC in the music-service Web page. The Player is then used to play and organize the downloaded content, and sync it to a portable device.
Windows Media Rights Manager is used to protect downloaded music files, so that they can only be played on the PC on which they were downloaded from the online store and authorized portable devices.
Bill Birney
Bill has worked as writer, director, and producer on numerous film and video projects, as well as music composer, sound designer, and disc jockey. He's co-written several books for Microsoft, including the Windows Media Resource Kit, and is a regular contributor to the Knowledge Center.
Feedback E-mail us
with your comments and feedback about this article.
Back to the top
Back to the top