Keitaide-Music Consortium

As for cars, telematics services* (coined from telecommunication and informatics) have been implemented, integrating information concerning traffic, parking lots, restaurants, and directions. The content distribution service is also in the menu.
*In telematics, a device called TAS (telematics application server) monitors the car from the outside and integrates many functions including arranging road services; sending automatic e-mail messages to the driver's residence and/or the insurance company; displaying traffic information, weather, news, and surrounding information; and providing directions, e-mail, and hand-free phones.
How are the contents distributed to cars?
There are contents such as news that become obsolete unless distributed quickly, music that does not decay and will be listened to over and over again, and images that have large amounts of data.

Similarly, there are different distribution channels such as the wired Internet, which is inexpensive and fast but impossible to connect to cars, the mobile phone, whose communication charges are so high that data-intensive contents might not be able to be sent, and wireless LAN, which is inexpensive and fast but can only used in small areas like parking lots. There are also medias like DVD-ROM that can distribute many gigabytes of data at one time, but require time and trouble to distribute.
So, it is necessary to choose a proper way to distribute the content according to its nature.
Then, what kind of services do consumers want? When you listen to music in the car, would you enter the titles of your favorite songs using a keyboard? Even when you are parking, let alone while driving, you can't do something so complex and time-consuming. Maybe you would prefer to input the genres or the names of the singers by voice. How about some nice music automatically played when driving along the beach? To realize all these options, it would be helpful if a clever search engine chose necessary music from the thousands of already stocked songs in the telematics terminal of the car. How much would the music cost, then? You wouldn't want to use the service if it cost 9,000 yen for 40 songs in three CDs for a three-hour drive along the coast. If a song cost 10 yen per play, you would only need to pay 400 yen. Wouldn't it be convenient if the monthly rate was 1,000 yen for as many songs as you want?
In UDAC, various content usage models can be adopted. For example, various settings are possible, such as 10 yen per song per play, 30 yen per song for 10 plays, or 50 yen for limitless plays for three days after purchase.
UDAC can also combine multiple distribution measures. If you buy a new car, there are 5,000 songs preinstalled in the telematics terminal, and when you drop by the car dealer, you can get a DVD-ROM with 1,000 songs categorized by genre. Furthermore, if you go shopping at a supermarket, the new 100 songs of the week can be automatically downloaded via the wireless LAN in the parking lot. All the songs are encrypted, and if you don't listen to them, they don't cost anything. When you listen to them, the utilization information and decryption keys are exchanged via the mobile phone network, and you are charged for the services used.

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