Cingular's music download service announced for 2006
posted September 22nd 2005 2:10PM
Cingular's not going to put the cart before the horse when it comes to their forthcoming wireless music download service, but today they confirmed that they are indeed cooking one up (not that anyone's surprised). But since they're not even expecting to light up that new HSDPA network of theirs until the end of this year, it follows that their music download service won't launch until 2006. Of course, they're probably not in a position to disclose pricing, but their COO said it would cost only "slightly higher" than what consumers currently pay for a track on iTunes, so, you know, expect it to be in the range of $1.00 to $13.00 a track. They also informally announced their openly-secret push-to-talk service, which we happen to know a few things about, and will hook you up more on later today.
Ugh. Slightly Higher.
Why would I pay money for a song that I can ONLY listen to on my phone and then lose forever if I upgrade that phone?
And a better question...why would I pay "slightly higher" fees for a song on iTunes which is infinitely more useful? I can transfer songs to my iPod, play them on my home stereo, burn them to CD, back them up to another hard drive, play them on other computers, play them in my car, strip the DRM using JHymn.
Cell companies are evil. The tobacco industry's bastard child.
$13 for a DRM track LOL
Way back when I got my 5600 (a year ago) there was a Napster service that I could download songs over the air with - is that still in service or was it just accessing their website through the built-in web browser?
The only rational compromise is for the carriers to sell 'deluxe' versions of songs. By 'deluxe' I mean allowing certain uses of the music (ringtones, callback tones, etc.) that you lock out regular mp3's from doing. For example, the ROKR phone doesn't let you use iTunes songs as ring tones, although I think if you load songs manually you can. But I expect this to change after Cingular launches their music download service.
The carriers need to make this distinction clear in their marketing. Of course, it's an artifical distinction, but at least you are providing the illusion of 'value-added' features with their more expensive downloads.
It's not any sort of long-term solution, but is something that is at least somewhat plausible for the carriers, and for consumers. They can't charge too much, even though they are already getting $2 for stupid 100kb MIDI files. I think around $2 will be palatable enough for consumers that they can generate some revenue, and exist side by side with regularly downloaded or ripped music.
In order for this service to be successful, they are going to have to make some adjustments to their data plans. At present, I have no desire to buy any of their ringtones (especially when with a little bit of... editing... to your phone you can upload anything you want for free)
Cingular hits you twice for their ringtones--the cost of the ringtone plus data. They will need to address that with the much larger data volume an mp3 track will involve.
Too bad you can only buy 100 songs :)
I just got a ROKR phone as a gift, and it's awesome. It's easy to load MP3s from your computer, and what kind of backwards Neanderthal cavemen pay for music these days anyway. Also why would I ever want to carry an iPod and a phone when I can carry a phone that does everything including take pictures and video. True it only holds about a hundred songs, but unless you're going away for the weekend what's the difference.
I do think the singular browsing system with Internet access and all the downloads that you can instantly purchase with a charge added to your phone bill is kind of a commercial gimmick, but I could care less about that anyway, if I wanted to do my Internet on the go I'd get a Blackberry.
It's also a really nice little phone that works very well, with excellent audio quality using headphones, making it quite practical.
I'd say the next step in the evolution of a phone-MP3 system is something that's compatible with the head unit in your car. A phone that will just plug into your head unit so that you can hear your phone calls over your car stereo system and speak back hands-free while also providing an additional inlet for music files. Whatever smart company develops that first is going to make a mint.