Mobile: looking to the future: technology such as new handsets and 3G networks is opening up possibilities in the mobile space, from full-track downloads to file-sharing, which have potential for both profit and piracy.

Music Week, June, 2004

The convergence of PC and mobile has been cited as the endgame for digital music since before digital music even existed in either format as a commercial proposition.

But now the possibility is in sight, the picture is rather less automatically desirable than we might have imagined. Largely because of the lessons learned from surprise successes such as SMS messaging and ringtones, a different profile of mobile usage has emerged in recent years, and downloads only make up one part of it, at best.

"Mobile is brilliant because ringtones and ringback tones are new income, they are not replacement income," says Musicindie managing director Gavin Robertson. "But it is when they try and make it into something else that it becomes really problematic. Downloads are...