Cellular Music...Which Carrier?

This Blog is here to assess the world of Mobile Music with each wireless carrier. This is aimed at Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, AT&T, and T-Mobile's mobile music store and mobile music phones.

Which is the best? Which is the largest, smallest? What do you need to know? Music on your wireless device is now the most popular reason to own a cell phone. What happened to using it to call?

Verizon Wireless, V CAST Music | Rhapsody - This new music service from Verizon Wireless adopted a similar form you all know, AT&T with Napster Mobile. This service is a joint venture of MTV and Real Networks with Verizon Wireless. It contains a library of over 5 Million songs. Songs can be downloaded from device for $1.99 per song or from the computer for $0.99. The songs are DRM protected, if you download them in this manner. If you pay $14.99, you can get unlimited music downloads and they are not DRM protected. You can transfer the non DRM protected songs on up to 3 devices. The songs you download without the package can be transferred to any Verizon Wireless cellular device. Songs that you download with the unlimited package cannot be transferred to a CD, so you do have the option of paying the $0.99 for the song to burn it. Also, with V CAST Music with Rhapsody, you can copy your CD to your computer and transfer your own songs. Some (few) phones will allow you to stream online music...live. The first phone that comes to mind is the Blackberry Storm.

Sprint Music Store - This is a store similar to Verizon's older basic V CAST Music store. They put the show on alone. This was copied directly from Sprint's Mobile Music website: "Wirelessly download digital tracks instantly to your phone. Choose from hundreds of thousands of full–length songs from virtually every genre. Select songs directly from your wireless phone and listen to them wherever you go, even download them to your PC." The bold phrase makes me think Sprint isn't confident in their own service. It includes about 250,000 songs. Some Sprint phones allow you to transfer your own music to the phone via computer.
Sprint also has a nice service which allows you to stream live music. You can use Pandora, Sirius, and more...on select phones.

AT&T, Napster/eMusic - AT&T doesn't seem to have their music store set up completely...or perfected at least. It seems extremely small. They do offer two music stores, depending on which one your device uses. This tends to get confusing for customers. The Napster store has about 6 million songs and is available on most of the music enabled devices. The pricing for this is also confusing. You have the option of purchasing songs individually for $1.99 per song or for $7.49 per month you get a 5 song pack then pay $1.99 per additional song. For the other devices that use eMusic, it is even less of a bargain. It has about 4.5 million songs. These devices must pay $7.49 per month for 5 songs and then pay $7.49 for each additional pack of 5 songs. You cannot buy them individually. Also, another drawback...the cheapest you can pay for one song (only from Napster) is $1.99. You can transfer your own music, by connecting to a computer. Purchasing music online is also $1.99 (for Napster).

T-Mobile - When I was making this thread, I assumed T-Mobile had their own music service, like the above carriers. I was mistaken. T-Mobile does offer a select few music phones, but due to the lacking 3G services they have and the lacking network capabilities...T-Mobile has chosen not to launch any form of music service for their phones. That is my understanding. I searched, searched, and searched...couldn't find anything. They require you find songs, on your own (whether you purchase them from a place like iTunes, Rhapsody, etc) and place them on your phone. You can also just place your own personal songs from a CD on the phone...i guess.

Which is the best quality? The answer would be Sprint PCS. The songs quality is generally the same quality throughout all of the carriers, except a slight leap on Verizon Wireless | Rhapsody. By quality, I mean how easy to use and what you get. Sprint offers many options to make the music of your life easier, and faster.

Which is the overall best? The V CAST Music with Rhapsody would win this. Not only do they have options to save you money, they have partnered with one of the largest music companies in the world...with 5 million + songs. They have many music channels which may also be convenient. It is a nice auric service, which many enjoy. They also have the largest number of music enabled phones compared to anyone else.

Best pricing? T-Mobile would win this, due to lack of services. They make it easy to where you can choose who you want to use. You can use iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and more. Which of those services is the cheapest? You decide...

AT&T didn't win a Music Award here because of how they seem to force customers to do what they want. They offer little options when it comes to streaming music. Most of the time, you are forced to download via the computer...due to lack of 3G coverage (which is required to download music from the device). They generally will almost force you to have a monthly plan for music, if you want to take advantage of music features. They also offer song ID...which costs. That doesn't make much sense, since almost all other carriers include it free. It is also inconvenient and requires you to call a number and wait for a text message to arrive for the results.