To provide the very best music available, O2 has, in a world-first, partnered with global brand MTV and some of the largest music providers in the world, including BMG, Universal, AIM (Independent record labels) and Warner Music International. O2 Music is available in the UK from today and will roll-out in Germany and Ireland during 2004.

O2 Music offers the very latest music, updated weekly, with prices averaging £1.50 per track. The music covers current and past popular tracks from a selection of genres, including 'dance', 'pop' and 'chill-out'. Customers can browse by genre, artist or track or select from any of the top charts, including: the UK top 10, the European top 20 MTV Hits top 10, MTV Dance top 10, MTV Base top 10 (Hip Hop, R&B, Urban Chart), MTV2 top 10 (Rock), chill-out top 10.

O2 Music also offers unique pre-releases, giving customers the opportunity to hear certain tracks before they have been released to more traditional channels, such as record stores. From today, the new Dizzee Rascal single 'Jus A Rascal' is available, exclusively to O2, a week prior to its release into the shops. A special re-mix of Blu Cantrell's top selling track 'Breathe' is also available, produced especially to celebrate the launch of O2 Music.

Customers can also select from an extensive back catalogue of tracks at launch, expected to increase - along with new charts and music genres - to more than 100,000 during the course of next year.

Kent Thexton, chief marketing and data officer, mmO2, said: "We are delighted to announce this first in Europe. We know that for many 'mobile handsets' and 'music' are key aspects of everyday life - an opportunity to combine the two not only makes sense, but a highly compelling offering. O2 Music offers fantastic value for money, for less than the cost of most ring-tones customers can purchase and own an entire chart track. In the fixed broadband space, we have seen music downloads drive more usage than any other application. We believe that music will be a significant new product for O2 and for the mobile industry as a whole."

O2 Music is easy to use. A customer simply connects the O2 DMP to his/her mobile handset via infrared (or using a short cable), and selects 'get new music' on the O2 DMP screen. The menu then provides a comprehensive list of charts or genres. Customers can then select the track they want, searching by genre, artist, track or chart and choose between hearing a 30-second preview clip and purchasing the entire track. The preview clip is free of charge and takes around 20 seconds to begin streaming. The entire track takes an average of 3.5 minutes to download, although thanks to the aacPlus compression technology, the customer can start listening in around 30 seconds, in high quality sound.

Once the track has downloaded, the O2 DMP can be used independently as a 'conventional' personal music device, enabling customers to listen to their stored tracks wherever, whenever they want. The removable SD 64MB memory card can store up to 64 full tracks; additional cards can be purchased for further storage capacity. Customers can also transfer their music files to a PC for additional storage. The O2 DMP is also able to play the user's other music in aacPlus and MP3 formats.

O2 Music works with a broad range of infrared-enabled handsets including the Nokia 7210, 7250i, 8310, 6310i, 6610, 5100 and 3650; Samsung V200 and P400; SonyEricsson T610; and Siemens SL55 and S55. The Siemens C60, MC60 and M55 work with a data cable. This range of handsets means that at launch, more than 1.2 million O2 customers can already access this service. Increasingly, all handsets will have infrared capability, making this an offering that can appeal to a huge audience.

The O2 digital music player can be purchased from www.o2.co.uk, and as a special launch promotion is priced at £99.99 until 31 December 2003.

The commercial launch follows the completion of a highly successful customer trial involving 300 customers in the UK and Germany earlier this year. Trialists downloaded an average of five tracks per user per week and 90% of the trial base used the service regularly. The most popular genres, in both UK and Germany, were pop, European pop, dance and hip hop. Avril Lavigne topped the chart, whilst other favourites included Evanescence, B2k and Busta Rhymes. The service has been widely acclaimed both in the record trade and in initial research with the retail sector.

Boyd Muir, Executive Vice President, Universal Music International, added: "Universal was involved in the trials for this service earlier this year, so we're very excited to be part of this new legal music offering as it reaches consumers. O2 Music complements the growing number of legal online music offerings which are now available; and, just as importantly, it's another secure method for fans to listen to their favourite artists, who in turn receive a fair share of the revenue for their work."

Carmel Landy, Director, Mobile Media, MTV Networks Europe, commented: "MTV is synonymous with firsts, and we are delighted to have worked with O2 as it developed Europe's first mobile 'over the air' music download service, enabling us to provide MTV's charts specifically for mobile devices."

IDC has suggested that mobile data revenues from music will reach £4.7bn in 2005, making music the second largest data revenue category after information services. (Source: IDC 2003).