SingTel announces unlimited music download service AMPed

Damian Koh | Jun 14, 2009

Screenshot of the AMPed landing page on the PC.

Following Nokia's Comes with Music debut in February and Sony Ericsson's PlayNow plus in April, SingTel today announced its unlimited music download service AMPed in Singapore. Unlike Comes with Music and PlayNow plus which are supported only on a few selected handsets, SingTel's AMPed service requires just a Java client to be installed on the phone. According to the telco operator, this is the first time such a service is being offered in Asia. Elsewhere, France Telecom has a similar offering with Orange dubbed Musique Max in Paris.

AMPed is a 24-month service that comes free with the Broadband on Mobile AMPed and 3G Flexi AMPed plans. Data charges are waived for downloading music over-the-air via the phone. Users will get to keep a total of 360 DRM-free tunes at the end of the contract. In addition, they can also synchronize playlists and profiles between the handset and the browser-based client on the PC, but they cannot transfer tracks between the two.

The service, developed in partnership with Universal Music Group, has approximately 500,000 songs ranging from 1960s tunes to contemporary hits for download. To help you better understand the new service and how it compares with Comes with Music and PlayNow plus, we've compiled a handy guide in the table below.

	SingTel AMPed	Sony Ericsson PlayNow plus	Nokia Comes With Music
Cost of service	Free. Current SingTel customers can sign up for the Broadband on Mobile (200MB) AMPed value-added plan at S$9.90 and get free unlimited data for browsing and downloading music. The bundled 200MB data is for regular Web browsing. New SingTel subscribers or those who are recontracting their plans can sign up for any of the three 3G Flexi AMPed plans to enjoy the music download service. The monthly subscription for the 3G Flexi AMPed plans are the same as the regular 3G Flexi plans.	Requires purchase of the W705 Walkman from SingTel. You get unlimited data downloads for the first month and 200MB of free data for the following 11 months.	Available on selected devices. You'll need to purchase a new handset to enjoy the service.
Contract period	24 months	12 months	12 months
Subscription renewal	Based on standard 3G Flexi AMPed or Broadband on Mobile plans.	SingTel hasn't decided on a renewal plan yet.	It is not possible to renew the service. Users will need to purchase another CWM handset to continue downloading music after the contractual period.
Compatible devices	Requires Java client to be installed on the phone. Current list of supported phones include: Nokia E66 Nokia E51 Nokia N86 Nokia N85 Samsung F400 Sony Ericsson W595 Sony Ericsson W980 Sony Ericsson W910 Sony Ericsson W705 Sony Ericsson G700 Sony Ericsson G700 Business	Will first be available on the W705 Walkman, followed by other upcoming Sony Ericsson devices to be announced at a later date.	Nokia N97 with CWM Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Nokia N96 with CWM Nokia N85 with CWM Nokia N79 with CWM Nokia 5320 XpressMusic with CWM Nokia 5220 XpressMusic with CWM
DRM	Users get to keep 15 DRM-free songs in WMA format every month.	Yes. It's OMA DRM 2.1 on the handset and Windows Media DRM for the PC client. At the end of the 12-month contractual period, users get to keep 200 most played tracks in the library to DRM-free MP3 (320bit) files at no extra cost. The remaining songs are playable only if the user continues with the subscription.	Yes, Windows Media DRM.
Music format	MP3 format with 96kbps bitrate when downloaded on the handset; WMA format with 192kbps bitrate when downloaded on the PC.	eAAC+ format with 24kbps bitrate or AAC+ format with 48kbps bitrate.	WMA format with 192kbps bitrate.
Record labels	Univeral Music Group	EMI Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal Music Group, plus regional labels including HIM, Rock Records Ocean Butterflies and selected independent labels.	EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, Universal Music Group, plus local labels including Rock Records and Ocean Butterflies.
PC client	Yes. Requires IE6 or Firefox.	Yes	Yes
Community features	You can share playlists, chat, comment and post album reviews on AMPed. You can also link your news to social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.	You can recommend new music and favorite tracks to friends with PlayNow plus access by sending them a message within the PlayNow plus application.	You can send playlists to other CWM users.
Others	You cannot transfer music between the handset and the PC. Instead you can browse a list of songs that you've downloaded on the PC using the phone. From there, if you want songs that are currently on the PC delivered to your handset, you can pick those tracks and download them over-the-air from the handset. You will get priority invitation to exclusive music showcases, autograph signings and meet-and-greet sessions up to six times a year. You can also watch three full-length music videos free on the AMPed Web site.	Supported handsets are preinstalled with 1,000 tracks which are popular in the region where the device is purchased in. You get to keep all the songs you've downloaded after the 12-month period if you continue the subscription, though SingTel hasn't worked out details of the plan yet. You can play the music you've downloaded on up to three registered PCs and the W705 Walkman. The PC client and handset works as separate entities. You cannot sync the music library between them. Instead, if you want a song that's currently on the PC delivered to your handset, you have to send the track info to the latter and then download the song over-the-air from the handset.	After the contractual period, users get to keep all their downloaded music on the registered handset and PC. More details are available in our FAQ about Comes With Music.

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lowbang

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lowbang says...
This looks like a really lame service. To not have universal player support is kinda lame. So what do I do with my other MP3 players which have more capacity and features? I don't know how they can get away with calling it an unlimited music service as well.
I gave my many other reasons here: www.lowbang.com...

Jun 15, 2009 09:40