Microsoft announced today a new chapter from its mobile music adventures. The Zune maker intends to buy the French company Musiwave, a provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies.

The acquisition will be just another brick for the foundation of the “Connected Entertainment” concept. Under this concept Microsoft is promoting various hardware and software assets such as Windows Mobile, Zune, MSN and Windows Live.

"Musiwave would bring key assets to us as we continue to bring our vision of Connected Entertainment to life," Microsoft's music chief J Allard said in a statement. Musiwave was acquired in January 2006 by Openwave for $120 million.

Musiwave is responsible for a variety of products and services such as MODS (Music On Demand Service) a solution based upon Musiwave's Music Player, SDC’s Java DRM solution, and Coding Technology's AAC+ optimised audio codec. The service works on Symbian devices such as Siemens SX1, Nokia 3650, 3660, N-Gage and other Series 60 handsets.

With 1 billion music-capable mobile phones to be sold until 2010, the mobile music market is a potential gold mine for every company involved in the market. Every major carrier and mobile phone maker is involved in selling music or ringtones to its customers.

Already Microsoft mobile technology runs on a variety of mobile platforms, featured on more than 140 mobile phones made by 50 handset-makers, sold by more than 160 mobile operators around the world.

In fact mobile music storefronts are emerging as one of the most important new channels for fans to discover, purchase, and enjoy full-track music and related content. Some analysts also predicted that soon music-capable mobile phones will surpass stand-alone MP3 players in terms of popularity

In a report released earlier this year the research company Portio Research said the increased consumption of digital music on mobile phones will boost the global music market, with worldwide revenues expected to rise from $32.1 billion in 2006 to $38.8 billion in 2011.