September 23rd, 2008

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Who's the largest MP3 player manufacturer in the world? No, it's not Apple - it's Nokia who sells more than 1 million phones per day. Nearly all of these phones function as digital music players. Most people don't yet use their mobile as a MP3 player because of limited storage space and difficulty getting songs to the device but that is about to change!

Today a service called Load2Mobile makes it easy to transform any modern mobile phone into a MP3 player. Using this free service you can load songs from your computer, any music web site or your MP3tunes Music Locker directly to your phone without cables - something even the most advanced iPhones cannot do.

Any Song From Your Computer	From Web Site To Your Phone	From Your Locker To Phone

In just seconds you can begin using the Load2Mobile service to put any of your songs onto your phone without special software. Since songs are loaded wirelessly, it's a snap to load songs from your home or work PC onto your phone with just a couple clicks of your mouse. Behind the scenes, each song is optimized for your mobile phone. This ensures the fastest loading time on even slower networks. Because the Load2Mobile service selects the ideal format and compression for your phone, this gives you 8-10 times the capacity of simply copying MP3 files. Even though the songs are smaller they still have surprising high fidelity.

Here are some common questions and answers:

Q: What does the Load2Mobile service do?

A: Load2Mobile is a free internet service that stores songs you select into your personal Music Locker and makes it possible to load them onto your mobile phone without any cables or special software.

Q: What do I need to use Load2Mobile?

A: Any Mac/Win/Linux computer with a web browser, some music files and a modern mobile phone. Then just visit: http://mp3tunes.com/load2mobile and follow the onscreen instructions.

Q: Is there a charge to use Load2Mobile?

A: Load2Mobile is a free service.

Q: How does Load2Mobile increase the capacity of my phone to store music files?

A: Every song is loaded into your personal Music Locker. Then a format and compression tailored for a mobile phone is utilized. This squeezes a typical 4-7MB MP3 file down to 550k-700k. This file is then sent to your mobile phone. This means you can fit 8-10 times as many songs on your mobile phone as you could loading a typical MP3 file. On a phone with 1gb of available storage you will be able to fit about 1,500 songs.

Q: Do I need a special cable or software on my phone?

A: No cabling is required. The songs are transmitted to you over the phone network so you will need a data plan. Most phones support data connections. Consult your plan to understand the cost of any data transmission.

Q: How do I play music files once they are on the phone?

A: Nearly all modern phones have built-in music players which will let you browse and play music files. They often have a random playback feature and the ability to support playlists as well. You can play songs using the phones speakers, but for extended listening you will likely want to use headphones. Some phones have a standard 3.5mm (1/8") headphone jack that should accept standard headphones. Other phones have the smaller 2.5mm (3/32") headphone jack that requires an adapter to use conventional headphones or headphones specifically designed for the smaller plug. The most advanced phones have Bluetooth capability so you can use wireless headphones with your mobile phone.

Q: Is there a way to increase the storage capacity on a mobile phone?

A: Many mobile phones support Micro SD cards that are tiny memory cards that will give a phone more storage. You can purchase 2GBs of storage - enough for about 3,000 songs for under $10, which should be ample room for most music collections.

Q: What songs can I send to my mobile using Load2Mobile?

A: Any songs on your local computer or song in your personal Music Locker can be selected and sent to your mobile phone. In addition, a Firefox and IE browser plugin is available that will let you select a song publicly available on any web site to send to your mobile phone. You can also visit Sideload.com and select any song from this music search engine to send to your mobile phone. In the future, music retailers and download sites will be enabling our Load2Mobile functionality so that music purchases and downloads can be directed to your mobile phone.

Q: What phones will Load2Mobile work on?

A: We've successfully used Load2Mobile on a wide range of phones including Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson phone models. The phone must be able to receive a SMS message and have a data plan so it can download the actual music files.

Q: What about Apple's iPhone?

A: We would like to support Apple's iPhone, but it is a closed device with Apple refusing to allow any way to add songs to the iPhone unit wirelessly. They are intent on locking users into only using iTunes. We have an iPhone application that we have been unable to make available in the app store.

Q: How is Load2Mobile better than an Apple iPhone?

A: iPhone must attach their device to a computer via a cable or docking station to add new songs. The only songs they can load to their device wireless are new purchases from the iTunes store. Load2Mobile users can direct any song from their computer or Music Locker to be loaded onto their phone wirelessly. With a browser plug-in they can also send music files from web sites to their phone. This ensures music on your mobile phone is always the freshest music in your life. Since most people already have a mobile phone that they carry around they can save the cost of purchasing an iPod or iPhone and use Load2Mobile to transform their phone into a MP3 player.

Q: How long does it take to load a song to my phone using Load2Mobile?

A: It takes about 1 minute per song to download the song to your phone over most mobile data connections. The time may vary based on the speed of the phone and the network connection but it generally takes 1 minute.

Q: What will the songs sound like on your mobile phone?

A: Even though the songs are small so they will load quickly, they are full stereo and top-quality sound. Of course, if you're loading crap like Jack Johnson it won't improve that. ;)

Q: How can I quickly send and receive lots of songs to my mobile phone?

A: To quickly send multiple files we recommend downloading and installing MobileSync. This small software program will run on most open mobile phones and will allow you to to quickly send songs directly to a designated phone and have your phone automatically receive them. It can also automatically be configured to keep your phone current by sending all new songs added to your personal Music Locker to your phone without further action from you. It's free and highly recommended for the avid music fan.

-- MR