
Cingular Wireless is pleased to announce Cingular Music, which is a way of brining music on Cingular wireless phones from Napster, Yahoo! Music, XM Satellite Radio and eMusic. As the slogan says, it delivers "your music, your way".
Cingular had to team up with Microsoft in order to put Windows Media Digital Rights Management into select handsets, so customers can enjoy and subscribe music on a wireless phone. The are the first to distribute subscription music through the handset, and have created several other industry firsts.
Number one, they have the most comprehensive music subscription service of its kind ever offered by a wireless carrier in the United States. Number two, they are the first carrier in the United States to enable mobile portability of online subscription music content from Napster, Yahoo, and eMusic, which sells tracks the universally compatible MP3 format. Number three, they have a one-click access to a complete sit of music related content. Number four, and this is the big one, they offer the largest collection of mobile music content available on the handset from the leading online music retailers. Dang! What will they do for an encore?
The Napster subscription, available for $14.95 a month, allows a user to fill their phone from their PC from over 2 million tracks. Cingular and Napster intend to offer a free 60-day trial of this service. Yahoo Music offers its service for about $11.99 per month, and offers a free Yahoo! Music Jukebox which allows customers to play, rip, and burn MP3s from their PC. The eMusic looks like it is only available to users of the Sony Ericsson W810i or W300i, but will enjoy a free "in-box" offer to load up to 40 songs from over 2 million tracks. The XM Satellite Radio will offer mobile access to audio streams of 25 popular commercial-free music channels at a low price of $8.99 a month.
The Cingular Music contains several menus options. The Music Player is where users can access the phone's entire catalog of music, and create playlists from all the songs, as well as a random play feature. Shop Music is where users go to purchase or explore music content from the music providers. MusicID allows a user to identify a song, and then purchase that song by linking to the Napster library. Music Videos offers a direct link to video content from MTV, VH1, CMT, and even original video footage from Cingular Sounds Live (CSL) Concert Series.
Streaming Music is when users listen to various genres of music content from XM Satellite Radio or MobiRadio. The Buzz is where users access Billboard Mobile, a mobile music application that gives Cingular customers access to music and entertainment news. The Community feature is made up of artist fan sites and chat rooms, and you can contact them through SMS and IM. The last is Music Apps, the home for other new and exciting music applications, including Mobilcast, a podcasting service.
The service is intended to be offered on five phones, including the Cingular SYNC, LG CU500, Sony Ericsson W810i, Sony Ericsson W300i, and Cingular 3125. The cost of Cingular Music depends on how many music subscriptions you want.