英語背誦80篇 32 Music on the move
2004 will be the year of a new generation of mobile phones with music functions that will revolutionize how the world listens to music.
If the latest technological breakthroughs displayed at the MIDEM international music fair over the past week fulfill their potential, people worldwide will soon be tuning into their favourite songs via their cellphones and video-game consoles.
For the music lover, the good news is that new online stores and cell phone operators plan to keep the price of downloading songs at around 2.2 euros (about 15 yuan) for a hot single song to 0.80 euro (about 6 yuan) cents for less popular albums.
The next generation of 3G mobile phones showed up at MIDEM will become available this year, opening up new opportunities to purchase and download whole tracks with far superior sound quality to what is available at the moment.
Nokia has even launched what it calls a "visual radio" with colour graphics and a built-in FM transmitter that will display information such as song titles and lyrics of the music it is tuned into. Its 7700 mobile device combines a phone with a touch screen, a video player and an MP3 music player.
For ringtone fans there is good news as well. Japan's latest craze for personalized ringback tones when the person being called hears a selected tune, is expected to be popular in Europe.
