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Sprint Music Store's tracks set to go phone-only
A great feature -- or, at least we thought it was a great feature -- of mobile music stores is that you're not eternally shackled to listening to the track on your crappy little handset. Buying and listening to music on the road is all well and good, and admittedly, it's probably the typical mode of operation -- but when you get home, it's nice to have your dollar-each tracks available for download on the desktop. Sprint wants to move away from that model, though, announcing that tracks purchased in its Music Store will skip PCs altogether in favor of a phone-only model starting October 15; you'll still be able to back up tracks to your computer, but they'll only play on the phone. That's awesome, totally logical, and a surefire way for Sprint to turn a profit on its music service when competitors are offering DRM-free tracks that can play anywhere you damn well please for the same 99 cents Sprint's charging. Something tells us this won't last long -- Sprint will either relent, outsource its music biz to a more capable third party, or stop offering music directly altogether. Or so we hope.
Pandora's music streaming gets mobile with Sprint
Pandora's tumultuous penchant for locking out US-based listeners based on licensing messes (thanks, RIAA) has taken a back seat to its new over-the-air launch with Sprint. While AT&T customers have had MobiRadio for years, Sprint customers tired of streaming Sirius will have a new reason to use that wireless data for music, so if you've got an EV-DO handset, get that phone browser up and hit Pandora's site. What you'll get in return is a Java applet that gives you access to Pandora's streaming content catalog -- access is free for 30 days; past that is $3/month, naturally.
Sprint's Samsung UpStage drops to $100
Just a few moons have passed overhead since the Samsung UpStage was released to the public, but Sprint has already dropped its price like a sack of hammers. The Samsung dual-faced and music-centric CDMA handset now lists for a mere $100 at Sprint Nextel's website. Handset prices from subsidized units regularly get price chops from all the major carriers, a fact we're all aware of. But, with the unique design position the UpStage held in the U.S. market, we're surprised the price was cut so much and so quick. Just released at CTIA about a month ago, the handset accompanies Sprint's decision recently to cut downloadable music tracks form its wireless music store from $2.50 to $0.99. If you're a Sprint customer and love your music on the fly, cheap and on a possible new UpStage, here's your day.
Mobile entertainment experience gets slammed by Time Warner CEO
If you've tried the native Verizon VCAST and Sprint Music Store features lately, did you come away feeling unimpressed and possibly frustrated? It's been mused that the reason mobile handset-based music services have not reached critical mass with consumers was because the limitations and difficulties with usage. This is true, and nowhere has a system like an iPod clickwheel been installed -- along with music selection software -- on any mobile that gets close to the reality distortion field the iPod ecosystem creates. So, it is no wonder that Time Warner's CEO is kinda bashing the existing and overall mobile music experience for consumers at 3GSM this week. Said Ed Bronfman Jr., who said mobile music purchasing is expensive, complicated and slow, added that "We need to make it easy, affordable and quick to get music on mobile phones -- until we achieve this goal, we will be leaving billions of dollars on the table."
Sprint launches streaming radio service, upgrades music store
Sprint recently announced that it is upping its mobile music offerings to include streaming radio in addition to its million-plus-selling music store, which itself is also getting a bit of a boost. Despite being dubbed Sprint Radio, the service will offer both radio and video content -- 50 channels in all, with music, news, weather, sports, finance, and entertainment from sources including NPR, ESPN, and Radio Disney. The service is available now on "select handsets" on Sprint Power Vision, Sprint Vision and Nextel networks for $5.95 a month. On the music store front, Sprint's announced that it's added user recommendation features, which'll suggest music Amazon-style based on your past purchases and other people's purchases. And for a bit of extra incentive for you to try it out, Sprint's offering three songs for the price of two 'till November 15th. Will all this be enough to get users to really start biting the bullet? Guess we'll have to wait and find out.[Via Phone Mag]
