online music service
A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings without ...
Japa
''Japa'' ( sa, जप) is the meditative repetition of a mantra or a divine name. It is a practice found in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, with parallels found in other religions.
''Japa'' may be performed while sitting in a medit ...
nese mobile phone brand run by
KDDI
() is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It h ...
, a Japanese telecommunication company. This service uses a
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
as a music player. This service was introduced on January 19, 2006, and the service began operating at the end of January in Japan. The first mobile phone which supports LISMO was sold on January 26, 2006. Since 2008, KDDI and Okinawa Cellular introduced 'LISMO Video', a new service with new means to enjoy video content as well.
In April 2013, KDDI acquired Taiwanese streaming service KKBOX. The LISMO and KKBOX services were merged under the KKBOX name. KKBOX is now expanding into other Asian markets.
Name
LISMO is short for au Listen Mobile service. The "LIS" in "LISMO" is pronounced the same as "risu", the Japanese word for "squirrel".
Mascot
The mascot of this service is LISMO-kun. It is a silhouette of a
squirrel
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...
carrying an orange logo with earphones connected to it. Some original goods of this mascot are sold only at the "LISMO FOREST" of
KDDI Designing Studio
KDDI DESIGNING STUDIO, also known as , is KDDI's consumer showroom in Harajuku.
Overview
KDDI Designing Studio was built on March 4, 2005 in Harajuku
is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic ...
.
Supported phones
LISMO is supported by
CDMA 1X WIN
CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible s ...
phones.
;Released in 2006
*
Casio
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...
: W41CA,"G'zOne" (W42CA), W43CA
*
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
: W41H, W42H, W43H, W43HII
*
Kyocera
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommuni ...
: W41K, W42K, W43K, W44K
*
Sanyo
, stylized as SANYO, is a Japanese electronics company and formerly a member of the Fortune Global 500, ''Fortune'' Global 500 whose headquarters was located in Moriguchi, Osaka, Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo had over 230 subsidiari ...
: W41SA, W42SA, W43SA
*
Sharp
Sharp or SHARP may refer to:
Acronyms
* SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme
* Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 19 ...
: W41SH
*
Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...
: W41S,"
Walkman Phone
Walkman, stylised as , is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for p ...
" (W42S), W43S, W44S
*
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
EXILIM
Exilim is a brand of digital cameras introduced in 2002 by Casio.
The Exilim Card series was notably thinner than other small digital cameras at the time of its introduction, typically 10–15 millimetres thick compared to other manufacturers' ...
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
This system provides the following functions;
* Listen to music on a mobile phone and/or a personal computer.
* Download and share music on a mobile phone and/or a personal computer.
* Copy music from a CD (compact disc) to a mobile phone.
* Share playlists with other LISMO users.
* Use downloaded music as a
ringtone
A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...
*
Backup
In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", w ...
address book data etc. to a personal computer
File format
''Under investigation''
The music file has .KMF extension on the phone and becomes .KDR on the PC, the codec is HE-AAC with 48 kbit/s bitrate, which is same as au's full track
ringtone
A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...
service.
Core services
* au Music Player
*: A music player application for au's mobile phone. Music on the handset can be managed through this application program.
* au Music Port
*: A mobile phone data managing application for a personal computer. This application is used to share and backup data from a mobile phone. Manages not only music data, but also other data in the mobile phone like
camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
* au Music Store
*: A service similar with the
iTunes Music Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 ...
. Customers can download and purchase music with PC. The average price of one song is about 315 Yen (including taxes) and there are 20,000 songs available at the beginning of service.
* Uta Tomo (うたとも) (TM)
*: Play list sharing service. Works over au's server.
Internationalization
This service is available only in Japan as of January 2006.
Some issues
Although all phones in Japan have an option to switch to English, phones from AU are not truly bilingual. Phones from AU use same software for all phone models (e.g. LISMO player, etc.). This software has not been translated. Thus, it is not easy for non-speakers of Japanese to use it as compared to in-built music players provided by AU competitors (such as NTT Docomo, Softbank, etc.)
Commercials
LISMO commercials, which changes approx. every 3 months, use many songs by
J-pop
J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...
artists. On March 5, 2008, an album titled ''Best of LISMO!'' was released. The album contains all 10 songs used in LISMO commercials that aired by the Summer 2007.
List of songs used in the commercial (in order of which the commercial aired):
#
Hana
Hana or HANA may refer to:
Places Europe
* Haná, an ethnic region in Moravia, Czech Republic
* Traianoupoli, Greece, called Hana during the Ottoman period
* Hana, Norway, a borough in the city of Sandnes, Norway
West Asia
* Hana, Iran, a ci ...
-
Orange Range
are a 5-member Japanese rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The band left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own label, S ...
Hikaru Utada
, who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan.
Born in the United States to Japanese parent ...
# By My Melody -
Ken Hirai
is a Japanese R&B and pop singer. Since his debut, Hirai has worked as a model, actor, composer, lyricist, singer, and brand ambassador.
During his career, Hirai has released 45 singles and nine studio albums as of January 2019.Mikazuki -
Ayaka
, known simply as Ayaka, is a female Japanese singer, songwriter and record producer formerly signed to Warner Music Japan. Born in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a singing career. She married actor Hiro Mizushima on February 22, 2009.
B ...
# Lovers Again -
Exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
#
Cherry
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).
Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...
-
Yui Yui may refer to:
People
* Yui (name), a Japanese name
*Yui (singer) (born 1987), Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress
* Yui people or Ibi, a Timucuan-speaking people in what now is Georgia, United States
Places
* Yui, Sh ...
#
Tashika ni
"" is the seventh single by Japanese singer Angela Aki. It was released on July 11, 2007. It was featured as the "LISMO" CM song.
Track listing
Live performances
* Music Station
is a Japanese music television program. Broadcasting live ...
Kumi Koda
, known professionally as , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs.
After debuting with the single "Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, "Real Emotion ...
See also
*
Sony Connect
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
*
Mora (music store)
is an online music and video store for the Japanese market operated by Sony Music Solutions, a part of Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ). It is integrated into the Japanese version of Sony's Music Center for PC software, and was also integra ...
*
iTunes Music Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 ...
*
Japanese mobile phone culture
In Japan, mobile phones became ubiquitous years before the phenomenon spread worldwide. In Japanese, mobile phones are called , literally "portable telephones," and are often known simply as ''keitai'' (携帯).
A majority of the Japanese po ...