LISMO is an online music service provided by au, a

Japa ''Japa'' () 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 meditation posture ...

nese mobile phone brand run by

KDDI () is a Japanese telecommunications operator. It was established in 2000 through the merger of , , and . In 2001, it merged with a subsidiary named Au, which was formed through the merger of seven automotive and mobile phone companies from t ...

, a Japanese telecommunication company. This service uses a

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

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-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

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.

Supported phones

LISMO is supported by CDMA 1X WIN 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 founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

: W41H, W42H, W43H, W43HII *

Kyocera is a Japanese Multinational corporation, 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 genera ...

: W41K, W42K, W43K, W44K *

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

: W41SA, W42SA, W43SA * Sharp: W41SH *

Sony Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications Inc., originally Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, was a Multinational corporation, multinational consumer electronics and telecommunications company, best known for its Mobile phones, mobile phone products. The ...

: W41S," Walkman Phone" (W42S), W43S, W44S *

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

: "Music-HDD" (W41T), W43T, W44T, W44TII, W44TIII, W45T, "DRAPE" (W46T), W47T *au design project: "neon" (W42T by Toshiba) ;Released in 2007 *Casio: W51CA, W52CA," EXILIM Phone" W53CA *Hitachi: W51H, W52SH, " Wooo Phone" W53H *Kyocera: W51K *

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

: W51P, W52P *Sanyo: W51SA, W52SA, W53SA *Sharp: "AQUOS Phone" (W51SH), W52SH *Sony Ericsson: W51S,"Walkman Phone" W52S, W53S *Toshiba: W51T, W52T, W53T, W54T, W55T *au design project: "Media Skin" (W52K by Kyocera), and "INFOBAR 2" (W55SA by Sanyo) ;Released in 2008 *Casio: W61CA,"G'zOne" (W62CA), "EXILIM PHONE" W63CA *Hitachi: W61H, "Wooo Phone" (W62H / W63H) *Kyocera: W61K, W64K, W65K *Panasonic: W61P, W62P * Pantech&Curitel: W61PT *Sanyo: W61SA, W62SA, W63SA, W64SA *Sharp: "AQUOS Phone" (W61SH / W64SH), W62SH, "URBANO" (W63SH) *Sony Ericsson: "Cyber-Shot Phone" W61S, W62S, "re" (W63S), W64S, "Walkman Phone, Xmini" (W65S) *Toshiba: W61T, W62T, "Sportio" (W63T), W64T, W65T ;Released in 2009 *Casio: CA001 *Hitachi: "Wooo Phone" (H001) *Panasonic: P001 *Sharp: SH001 *Sony Ericsson: "Cyber-shot phone" S001, "Walkman Phone, Premier3(Cube)" (SOY01) *Toshiba: T001

Features

Function overview

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

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

s with other LISMO users. * Use downloaded music as a

ringtone A ringtone is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming telephone call. Originally referring to the sound of electromechanical striking of bells or gongs, the term refers to any sound by any device alerting of an incoming call. On p ...

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 "wikt:back ...

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 High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) is an audio coding format for lossy data compression of digital audio as part of the MPEG-4 standards. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC (AAC-LC) optimized for low- bitrate applicati ...

with 48 kbit/s bitrate, which is same as au's full track

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 instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

data, PIM data, etc. Supports only

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

* au Music Store *: A service similar with the iTunes Music Store. 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 (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

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 -

Orange Range is a Japanese rock band known for their strong Okinawan identity. 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 ...

# Ishindenshin - Orange Range # Keep Tryin' -

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

# By My Melody -

Ken Hirai is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Since his debut, Hirai has worked as a model, actor, composer, lyricist, singer, and brand ambassador. During his career, Hirai has released forty-seven singles and eleven studio albums as of January 2024.

# Mikazuki -

Ayaka , known simply by the mononym 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 ...

# Lovers Again -

Exile Exile or banishment 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 ...

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 na ...

- Yui # Tashika ni - Angela Aki # Stay with Me -

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 Emoti ...

References

External links

KDDI au
{{KDDI KDDI Mobile telecommunication services Online music stores of Japan Products introduced in 2006 2006 establishments in Japan