However Sony Ericsson new PlayNow arena will change that. PlayNow arena builds on the existing PlayNow service, which was introduced in February 2004. At first PlayNow was limited to polyphonic ring tones. Now available in 32 countries, it has already expanded to include mastertones (MP3 ringtones), games, full music tracks, themes and wallpapers (some of these delivered though Fun & Downloads). In total some 200 million items have been downloaded through PlayNow.

Those with a UIQ 3 powered W950 or P1 (and shortly the W960) will probably be familiar with the TrackID feature on these phones. TrackID allows a user to record a music track, either through their phones microphone or from the built-in FM radio, and send the recording to gracenote. A recognition is then performed on the recording and details of the artist and track sent back to the phone. TrackID works remarkably well (see my W950 review), reflected in fact it is used some 125,000 times a day from a wide variety of Sony Ericsson mobile phones (including a large number of non-UIQ phones).

The new service will allow user to leverage TrackID into the PlayNow content catalogue. This means that from hearing, recording, and discovering the artist and title of a piece of music the user will be able to move directly into the PlayNow arena to purchase the track. There will also be TrackID Charts, an interesting idea that will show what tracks users are discover through TrackID.

Sony Ericsson is promising that PlayNow arena will be expanded to include millions of music tracks and thousands of mastertones, from both major and independent labels.

It will be possible to access PlayNow arena from either a mobile device or PC (with tracks side loaded to a mobile.) Music will be offered in MP3 and Windows Media DRM protected formats, although slightly confusingly Sony Ericsson's press release also states that "the majority of the music catalogue will be offered in DRM-free format". PlayNow arena will not be limited to Sony Ericsson phones, but all devices supporting the available formats (although the TrackID integration will be a Sony Ericsson only feature).

Anyone who has used TrackID will undoubtedly see this development as somewhat obvious. While it may be a relatively late move into the full music store business, integration with TrackID could be a winner for Sony Ericsson. While there are many music discovery models being trialed at the moment (see my recent interview with Social.FM) music is something everyone likes to think they have found by themselves. TrackID enables that personal discovery possible, in a way not achieved by community based music discovery. This makes TrackID integration a potential winner for Sony Ericsson in what is becoming an increasingly competitive music download business.

The enhanced PlayNow service will roll out in selected markets during the second quarter of 2008, with additional markets added progressively during the year.