The delivery of data services is the wave of the future for wireless carriers who've seen their voice revenues drop considerably over the last few years. Wireless services are also a business opportunity for content providers. Just ask one of the largest music conglomerates in the world, the Warner Music Group.

The company inked a deal this week with Melodeo to allow consumers to download entire tracks from its music catalog directly to their mobile handsets. Melodeo's distribution platform provides customers with the ability to shop, preview, purchase, play, and store songs from their cell phone or smartphone.

Warner Music Group Senior VP of Internet Strategy & Business Development offered, "With the global penetration of the wireless platform and the dramatic expansion of mobile phones' functionality, our agreement with Melodeo positions us to take advantage of a dramatic next step for consuming music. We are excited about the prospect of offering our vast catalog to millions of mobile phone users in markets around the world."

Although 3G, high-speed, wireless networks are finally beginning to roll out, they are still far from ubiquitous. To speed up over-the-air (OTA) music downloads, Melodeo's software incorporates the aacPlus audio codec from Coding Technologies, which produces music files in the 500 to 750K range, significantly smaller than a typical MP3 file. While cell phone and smartphone memory varies, Melodeo asserts users should expect to store roughly 75 to 125 tracks with 64MB of memory.

Wireless subscribers download the Melodeo client software, which offers stereo capabilities and music-store connectivity, or the software can be built into the handset at the point of manufacture. In addition, wireless operators can deploy Melodeo technology on their networks.

Mobile operator Telefonica, which serves the Spanish and Portuguese markets, announced plans to support the Melodeo mobile-music solution in Europe. Select U.S. mobile phone operators should begin implementing it sometime next year.

More Mobile Music
AT&T Wireless' (now a part of Cingular Wireless) launched a service a couple of months back called the mMode Music Store. Built with Loudeye and Microsoft, the store lets you sample and purchase music from a mobile handset for the first time in the United States.

Nokia's announced partnership with Loudeye this summer to create a music download service and player for its mobile phones and smartphones. Motorola inked a similar deal with Apple only a month earlier.

Apple will deliver a version of its iTunes music player for Motorola phones next year, allowing consumers to sync audio files from their PCs for playing on their Motorola handsets. Nokia gave no timetable for the arrival of its music service.

Jupiter Research expects the budding digital music industry to grow from $270 million this year to $1.7 billion in 2009. Tapping into the world's 1.5 billion mobile phones, by far the largest market for any portable electronic device, should help it grow.