AT&T Mobility broadens mobile music service

AT&T Mobility bolstered its mobile music offering with plans to offer over-the-air access to Napster’s 5-million-plus music tracks beginning next month. The deal builds on the carrier’s current side-loading deal with the music giant as well as its over-the-air downloading agreement with eMusic.
The service, dubbed Napster Mobile, will allow AT&T Mobility customers with select handsets-the carrier was not ready to announce which models, but said Apple Inc.’s iPhone is not part of the deal-to purchase full-track tunes for $2 each or for bargain hunters a five-pack of tracks for $7.50.
Marc Nagel, director of music and personalization products for AT&T Mobility, said the offering will tightly integrate the carrier’s current music offerings, including its ringtones and Music ID service, to provide customers with an easy-to-navigate storefront.
“The goal was to make this as easy to navigate as possible and to get people out of having to negotiate different silos,” Nagel said.
Similar to its current deals for OTA music and side-loading, the new music offering will rely on Microsoft Corp.’s digital-rights-management package, and will send the track to both the mobile device and the laptop.
Nagel would not discuss the financial implications of the agreement, but said the $2 price point per track was very “consumable.” Verizon Wireless charges the same rate for its OTA music service, while Sprint Nextel recently cut the price of its OTA offering from $2.50 per track to $1.
Nagel also clarified that users accessing the service would be charged for any data used to transfer the song, noting that the customer would be warned of the charges and would be directed to a page to sign up for a data package.
As for compatible devices, Nagel said the carrier would have a good mix of handsets compatible with the service and acknowledged its handset partners, including Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson, had compelling stables of devices geared toward music.
The iPhone will not be part of the deal as the uber-device is constrained to Apple’s iTunes music store.
Apple recently announced plans to allow iPhone users to download tracks using the device’s Wi-Fi connection, but not using AT&T Mobility’s cellular network.
While AT&T Mobility now offers OTA tracks from Napster and eMusic, Nagel added the carrier is interested in partnering with other music service providers to supply more tracks.
In addition to the mobile music additions, AT&T Mobility unveiled its MobiVJ streaming video service and VIP Access, which it describes as a mobile fan club and discovery service.
MobiVJ includes videos from eight genres and runs $7 per month, while VIP Access is available for $3 per month.