Even though the iPhone, which is scheduled to launch at the end of this month, is generating all the buzz, there are several developers hard at work creating mobile music applications they hope will revolutionize the mobile music space beyond the advent of an iPod in handset form.

Software developer Beatnik already has devised a technology that compresses a song file 10 times more than a typical MP3, allowing large music files to be shipped over slow mobile networks — even GPRS. Beatnik wants to enable basically any phone with a media player to be a networked music phone, an aim many carriers likely share.

While Beatnik is dealing with the size of the music package, several other companies are seeking out alternative delivery methods. With the iPhone, customers will use the standard iTunes software to sideload their music, and although carriers are selling music for wireless download, they're only doing it through their own branded portals. Mobile music platform provider Groove Mobile, which powers Sprint's music store, is investigating ways for audiophiles to wirelessly download music off of the carrier deck using text short codes. Groove Mobile is presenting a united front with its record label partners to the service providers, asking them to lower per-bit charges for downloading large files such as songs. The company already has struck a deal with Sony BMG and Vodafone for such a service and is pursuing other carriers.

mSpot has built an engine that allows customers to wirelessly link their phone directly to their PC-stored music collection. Since the application is dealing with limited memory capacity on the phone, it keeps metadata on each song file loaded on the handsets onboard and swaps out the song files using the data connection as a subscriber cycles through his or her playlist.

Perhaps one of the most interesting new innovations on the song download front is new application developer Melodeo's cracking of the iTunes barrier. While millions of iPod owners have music stored in iTunes, only an Apple device can access those files, leaving them with few options if they want to transfer those files to non-iTunes powered phones.

Melodeo, however, has created what is essentially a streamed radio service that accesses a customer's personal iTunes library. The service accesses the metadata stored in the iTunes library file and uses that info to create what amounts to a giant playlist on its own servers using its own licensed music. That application then streams those songs directly to the phone based upon individual playlists the user creates.

What's more, the service will be cheap, said vice president Dave Dederer, vice president of music content for Melodeo and a former member of rock group The Presidents of the United States of America.

“For the cost of one song, you can have all of your iTunes music for a month on your phone,” he said.