S60 & Digital music

Digital music has evolved and is now playing an extremely important role in many people's lives. Nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the mobile environment.

Beginning in 2005, mobile operators around the world started rolling out music services, including several that supported downloading full tracks directly to a phone. Since then, we have seen an expansion of these download services, plus the introduction of new services that help customers discover new music and share their collections and preferences directly with each other. And it’s not just limited to operators. Aggregators, manufacturers, and the content owners themselves are looking at ways of servicing this rapidly growing market.

Today's mobile handsets are fast becoming the preferred portable music device. In terms of offering a complete music experience, mobile phones can provide much more than traditional portable music players. The phones can support the purchasing of music directly from the internet over the wireless network, virtually anywhere, anytime, providing great new opportunities for the music business. This can dramatically streamline the process of searching for and purchasing music, while at the same time removing the limiting factors of location and PC access. Now you can have the music you want, virtually whenever and wherever you want it, all without the hassle of carrying a standalone music player in addition to your mobile phone.

S60 has taken a strong leadership role in enabling music capabilities in the handsets offered by multiple manufacturers. S60 has also refined the multimedia offering into a complete, powerful and feature-rich package that is easy to use and delivers crystal clear music playback. At the center of that package is the S60 Music Player.

The S60 Music Player lets you enjoy the music you purchase from your favorite service, as well as music from your own collection that you want to carry with you on your mobile phone. It also lets you use a variety of popular tools to rip your CDs and transfer music directly to your S60 device. Users can choose from a wide variety of popular internet music file formats such as MP3, AAC, WMA, and Real Audio, as well as highly mobile-optimized formats such as AAC+ and eAAC+.

With S60 3rd Edition, it is easy to transfer music between a PC and your mobile device. However, first you need some music.

Music acquisition

There are essentially three ways to legally acquire music for playback on your device.

1. Rip a cd from your collection using your favorite PC app (e.g. iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer, PC Suite, etc.) and then transfer it to your phone.
2. Purchase and download music tracks from your favorite online music service (e.g. Napster, Wal-Mart, iTunes*, Amazon, etc.) using your PC, and then transfer them to your phone.
(* most files purchased from iTunes Music store are not supported on S60, as they are protected by FairPlay (Apple’s proprietary DRM). However, S60 does support 'iTunes PLUS' files (DRM free MP4 files with AAC audio).
3. Browse, purchase and download music tracks from your favorite online music service direct to your S60 device.

Music transfer

If your music tracks are now on your PC, the next step is to transfer them to your S60 handset.

There are a variety of methods and tools you can use to accomplish this:

1. Beginning with S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1, S60 devices are compatible with Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 and 11. To connect your device you can use the USB cable that is usually found in the sales package. One end of the cable plugs into the USB port on your computer and the other plugs into your handset. When you do this, you will be given the option on the phone to select your preferred mode. Choose “Media Player” mode. Once connected, your phone will be recognized as a WM portable device and will appear in the WMP. Proceed with the synchronization of your music and track lists in accordance with the WMP instructions.

2. Some manufacturers provide a software package for managing S60 devices (e.g. Nokia PC Suite, Samsung PC Studio, etc.). To transfer your music using one of these alternative methods, simply follow the previous instructions but ensure you choose, for example, “PC Suite” mode when given the option to select your preferred mode. You can then proceed to synchronize your music and track lists in accordance with the appropriate manufacturer’s instructions.

3. Your USB cable can be used to directly connect your device to your computer as an external drive. When you do this, you will be given the option on the phone to select your preferred mode. Choose “Mass storage” mode and your handset/memory card will show up in your computer file structure as an additional drive. You then manually “drag and drop” to copy music files from your computer directly to your memory card.

4. You can remove the memory card from your phone and place it into a computer peripheral device known as a memory card reader/writer. This in turn plugs directly into a USB slot on your computer and shows up in your computer file structure as an additional drive. You then manually “drag and drop” to copy music files from your computer directly to your memory card.

Once your music files appear on your S60 device, the player automatically organizes the music on the device and supports imported playlists or playlists created on the device. The S60 Music Player can also include a direct link to a music shop, which links the phone directly to internet-based music service portals. Operators or other customers can configure this to provide one-click access to their music services.

Support for music innovation

S60 is also open to developers who want to support other music services with their own applications. Forum Nokia offers a website dedicated to music development for S60 (and other Nokia platforms) at www.forum.nokia.com/multimedia ».The site provides links to documents and sample code designed to make it easier for developers to take advantage of the powerful playback and streaming interfaces that are included in the S60 SDK.