By Jay Wrolstad, Wireless.NewsFactor.com

Still feeling the sting from its recent battles with the music industry, MP3.com has announced that it will unveil its next generation of digital services early next year. The company, which plans to emphasize the wireless capabilities of its new My.MP3 services, invited the public to experience firsthand the latest developments created by researchers for the music service provider and its partners.

MP3's new technologies are geared toward providing real-time access to music, including the proprietary Beam-it software that allows subscribers to place their CD collections online, the Instant Listening service, and Music Messenger, which delivers song recommendations directly to subscribers via e-mail.

MP3 'Unplugged'

A hint of what will be presented at the "Next Generation of My.MP3" event on January 4th was offered this fall when MP3 launched a service allowing online music listeners to send their favorite tunes to wireless devices with a single click. Using software created by MP3 partner FusionOne, Inc., subscribers can synchronize music files from the MP3.com Web site, eliminating the need for separate visits to MP3.com to download files or connect their wireless devices to their PCs in order to transfer downloaded files.

MP3 has also linked with Sprint PCS to offer a hybrid MP3 player and mobile phone manufactured by Samsung. Sprint provides a service with the phones that features an online storage site for MP3 files from which customers can collect music files for later downloads to their phone MP3 players.

MP3 officials believe wireless delivery will play a pivotal role in the company's future as 3G wireless services are rolled out and service providers seek multimedia applications that take advantage of high-speed bandwidth.

Tuning In

The "Next Generation of My.MP3" event will be held January 4th at the MP3.com headquarters in San Diego, California, with a hands-on MP3 "Play-house" featuring device demonstrations from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

"This is a must-see event for anyone interested in the future of online music," said Michael Robertson, chairman and chief executive officer of MP3.com. Robertson added that the event will feature demonstrations of new technology and discussions with the industry's hardware device manufacturers. MP3 aficionados can register for the event through the company Web site.

MP3.com, Inc. has created a technology infrastructure for the storage, management, promotion and delivery of digital music. The company's Web site holds what MP3.com claims is the largest collection of digital music available on the Internet, with more than 750,000 songs and audio files posted from over 117,000 artists and record labels.