Another plane another train another music service in the brain

by: admin Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

Rating: here I go again…(please pick up air guitar and sing along to Whitesnake)

AT&T Mobile Music has launched with eMusic Mobile. The new service is an over-the-air music download service from eMusic (an independent music retailer). The service has a catalog of 2.7 million songs and will now become part of AT&T’s Mobile Music platform.

From the press release
“eMusic Mobile is not your typical over-the-air service,” said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data Services for AT&T’s wireless unit. “This service, which is as unique as the independent artists found in the eMusic catalog, differentiates itself from the competition through its ease of use, subscription pricing model and the ability to play these tracks in any MP3 player.”

“eMusic Mobile will expand the audience for mobile music beyond the youth market by offering an alternative to the mainstream pop hits that have so far dominated over-the-air music,” said David Pakman, eMusic president and CEO. “AT&T is a terrific partner for this service, and we look forward to offering AT&T’s more than 63.7 million subscribers access to a rich catalogue that ranges from legends like Paul McCartney and Miles Davis to new independent stars such as Spoon and Arcade Fire.”

What we think
Another day, another music service – its getting boring. We are not sure if music is the killer service that users want and crave and need. Music is a stepping stone and an interest magnet for mobile operators buy paying or subscribing for USD 7.49 for five tracks a month is a headache.

OK to be fair the price sounds reasonable but it might not be legal but we all know that you can download music for free and for as long as there are alternatives consumers (especially mobile youf) will use them.
This weekend I got my first ever iPod Nano. I thought I never needed an iPod – but it was a nice present. Its silver, sexy and small. But now I have it – I refuse to pay to download any songs to it. Why? I don’t know but if I am refusing to pay 99p for a full track download then (good golly) I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Editor’s note: This is DRM free so it has at least one huge differentiation