Sony NetServices StreamMan Drives Vodafone Radio DJ

Forum Nokia Pro Success Story
Sony NetServices StreamMan Drives
Vodafone Radio DJ Sony NetServices GmbH
Salzburg, Austria
www.sonynetservices.com
Vodafone Radio DJ service uses Sony NetService’s StreamMan application to present a
superior music experience to S60 device owners with 3G connections.
What can top the portable music experience of an Apple iPod? Well, how about a portable music service that
produces CD-quality sound, yet does not require the listener to carry around an extra device? What about a
music experience that makes it even quicker and easier for consumers to hear only the music that they want to
hear? That is what is now being offered by Vodafone Radio DJ, a music service that is powered by StreamMan,
from Sony NetServices. The StreamMan service is targeted towards consumers who have S60 3rd Edition devices
as well as 3G connections to their mobile operator. Vodafone’s Radio DJ implementation is currently available in
seven European countries. It is priced at a flat rate of under 10 euros ($13USD) per month, and there is no cost
for the associated data traffic.
“Consumers are already carrying around their mobile phones, so there is now no
need for them to carry around an extra device just to listen to music.”
“This is the first fully-convergent music service worldwide,” says Andreas Spechtler, director, Sony NetServices
GmbH of Salzburg, Austria. “It allows the consumer to play the music on the mobile phone, and also to download
it to the PC. Consumers are already carrying around their mobile phones, so there is now no need for them
to carry around an extra device just to listen to music.”
A more convenient user experience
The innovation of StreamMan goes well beyond simply making music available via the operator’s 3G connection.
It represents a breakthrough in creating the user experience. “The value of StreamMan is that it presents instant
access to personalized music. It is more convenient than downloading it and then playing the download. It is
more compelling than listening to a radio station. It is truly a new way of experiencing and collecting music,”
says Spechtler.
The key feature of StreamMan is its easy-to-use personalization system, which enables users to “train” the pre-programmed
radio channels to their own personal tastes by simply pressing a button to indicate “like” or “dislike”
while listening to a song. If the listener presses “dislike”, the music skips to the next song. Underneath this simple
“like/dislike” user interface is an extremely sophisticated music analysis engine developed by Sony NetServices.
With it, the consumer can quickly “train” the pre-defined and personal channel music sent by the service.
“We developed StreamMan for S60
devices first, because this is an important
platform for 3G phones in Europe.
The most important feature of the
S60 3rd Edition is scalability, which
enables us to enhance the user
experience,” says Andreas Spechtler,
director, Sony NetServices.
Looking Ahead:
In the coming months, Spechtler sees
StreamMan expanding in multiple
ways. “It is more than simply the
growth of 3G,” he says. “It is also geographic
and device expansion.”
Spechtler says that StreamMan will
soon be available for the Nokia N73
multimedia device as well as other
Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices.
Geographically, Vodafone Radio DJ will
soon be available in Spain, and will be
expanded to the Asia-Pacific (APAC)
region in 2007.

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The StreamMan service consists of three elements:
Pre-defined channels. Customers can select a radio channel based on mood or genre. If the customer indicates
that he or she does not like the song, the channel skips to the next track within the channel. Customers can
also buy any songs that they like and these will be automatically available for download to their phone and
PC. Among the many pre-defined channels are Blues Brother/Soul Sister, Jazz Grooves, and Workout! exercise
music.
Personal channels. By rating songs on the existing radio channels, consumers can create a number of new, personal
channels corresponding to their desired genres, moods or specific themes. Sony NetServices creates a
detailed classification of each song in the catalog, analyzing beats and harmonies as well as genre and mood.
As a result, the radio channels that individual customers receive will feature more songs that have characteristics
in common with songs that they like, while avoiding songs with characteristics similar to those that the
customer dislikes.
Collections. StreamMan also presents the consumer with programmed collections of songs on mobile phones
or PCs. Local music experts create these collections around a theme. Examples of these themes include Bob
Dylan Essentials, the Best New Hip Hop, Straight From the Charts, and Christmas Hits. These collections are
updated regularly, and include about 15 songs each.
“Forum Nokia PRO helped us to solve many technical issues that we
encountered on the path towards implementing our product.”
Songs purchased on either mobile phone or PC will be available to download on both devices, with a separate
high-quality stereo copy being delivered individually to each. Personal settings and personal channels created on
the mobile phone will also be accessible from the PC. The music, Spechtler notes, comes from all major labels, not
just those controlled by Sony.
How Forum Nokia PRO helps Sony NetServices
In developing StreamMan and bringing it to market, Sony NetServices received valuable assistance from Forum
Nokia PRO. “Forum Nokia PRO helped us to solve many technical issues that we encountered on the path towards
implementing our product,” says Spechtler. “In addition, they lent us many prototypes of new devices, which
enabled us to test our software on the newest terminals. This is especially important for us, since our application
was to be preinstalled on upcoming Nokia devices.”
“We developed StreamMan for S60 devices first, because this is an important platform for 3G phones in Europe,”
says Spechtler. “The extra features of the S60 3rd Edition are warmly welcomed, and we plan to take advantage of
them one by one in applications. At the moment, the most important feature of the S60 3rd Edition is scalability,
which enables us to enhance the user experience.”
On the marketing side, Spechtler notes, Sony NetServices took part in the Nokia Mobile Application Summit in
Hangzhou, China, in April 2006, where his team was able to showcase the StreamMan application and to meet
operators and other developers.
StreamMan business strategy
Sony NetServices teamed with Vodafone Group plc for the initial rollout of StreamMan because of that operator’s
large global footprint, says Spechtler. “Vodafone has more than 185 million subscribers, with 11 million of them
using 3G, and it has a huge presence in Europe,” he continues. “Music is a key driving factor for Vodafone, which is
why the Vodafone Live! service is promoted in almost everything they do.” Vodafone Radio DJ is currently available
in France, Germany, U.K., Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Romania. It is currently available for the Nokia N91 and Nokia
N70 multimedia devices, the Nokia 6680 and Nokia 6630 imaging smartphones, and other devices.
For more information, go to:
www.nokia.com/developer
Vodafone Radio DJ lets consumers select
personal channels, music collections,
and predefined music channels.
Examples include:
…the Pop Now! personal channel, or
…the Hot Music! collection, or
…predefined channels such as Hip Hop.
Copyright © 2006 Nokia Corporation. All rights reserved. FP11006