European music service wants to rob iPhone thunder

A music service that lets consumers directly download an unlimited number of songs to their cell phones for a weekly fee is launching Thursday in Europe.

Britain's Omnifone said it had signed content deals with the four biggest music groups in the industry and had agreements with 30 mobile operators in a bid to steal the thunder of the much-hyped iPhone from Apple.

The service called MusicStation will be suitable for 75 percent of mobile handsets already available in the market and will launch first in Sweden on Thursday. It will then launch across Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Africa in the coming days and weeks.

Omnifone is targeting 100 million phones in a year and can offer over 1 million songs.

"It's hard to imagine a more compelling music experience on mobile than MusicStation," said Rob Wells of Universal Music Group's digital division. "It works on almost any phone, giving consumers the freedom to choose whatever device they want (and) it allows downloads wherever those consumers are."

Omnifone has also signed content deals three other major music groups: Sony/BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI Group

It will offer unlimited track downloads for about $4 (2.99 euros) per week, which includes data traffic charges.

Music on mobile phones has been around for several years, but most music on phones is currently ripped from CDs and files swapped on the Internet, not sold by operators over their wireless networks.