Genie Internet Puts Music News on Mobile Phones

BT Cellnet’s mobile Internet business
Genie Internet announced
Friday that it will link with
EMI Group to deliver music
news to mobile phone users in the UK.

To receive the news, users simply have to be registered
with Genie Internet. The service will be available
to all of the UK’s 20 million mobile phone users.

“More and more people are demanding real time information on
the move so that they can be first in the know,” said
Brian Greasley, general manager of Genie Internet.

“There is no more convenient way to send and receive
information than via your mobile phone. One hundred
and forty million mobile phone SMS text messages are
already sent in the UK every month and by 2003 more
people could be accessing the Internet via mobile
devices than from their PC.”

The world’s third largest record company, EMI Recorded Music
currently has 1,500 artists who release more than
1,200 albums each year. Its artists include The Beatles,
Robbie Williams, Radiohead, Blur, Geri Halliwell, the
Spice Girls, George Michael, David Bowie and The
Rolling Stones.

Users who enter the G-Live Music section of the Genie
Internet portal will be able to get news headlines
on their favourite bands delivered direct to their
mobile phones. Within each message there will be
a mobile phone number that customers can dial for
further information and sound clips.

Using the mobile phone with BT Cellnet’s U pre-pay
youth brand will be cost 5p (8 cents) per minute.

The music news service starts in January next year.