Verizon Wireless and digital music service Rhapsody on Monday announced a deal that gives Verizon Wireless' mobile phone subscribers DRM-free, over-the-air access to Rhapsody's 5 million-song library for $15 a month.
The deal is the second such effort in the last 10 months between a mobile carrier and a music subscription service designed to spur a potential mass medium that has failed to live up to its immense hype. Last October AT&T and Napster announced a similar deal.
The pairing of mobile phones and music continues to entice the digital entertainment industry, but so far music on mobile phones has been disappointing.
Worldwide mobile music revenue has grown slowly from $1.2 billion in 2006 to $2 billion in 2007, according to eMarketer. The research firm expects sales of $3.9 billion in 2008.
The majority of that revenue comes from ringtones and ringback tones, rather than full-track downloads, but Rhapsody offers some hope.
"Mobile media consumption in the U.S. remains underdeveloped, but this Rhapsody deal makes sense on many levels … for instance it offers iPod compatibility and it provides DRM-free content from all four of the majors," said Paul Verna, an analyst with eMarketer.
Rhapsody's MP3s can play on iPods which removes a major stumbling block to the easy transfer of songs from one device to another. And up until recently the availability of DRM-free content was spotty which complicated matters for consumers. Consumers were not always sure which songs were DRM-free and which weren’t.
The deal also affords more fluidity between online and mobile content, Mr. Verna said, because Verizon Wireless subscribers get two copies of each song -- one that can be downloaded over the air and another on their PCs.
Rhapsody also offers a common music management and synching interface between the users' online music collections and their mobile music.
But even with the improved flexibility and ease of use, some analyst believe that mobile music will remain at best a niche market with consumers occasionally buying music over the air on impulse.
"We have had some brand name failures in mobile music like Motorola's iRadio and Apple's deal with the ROKR phone," said Shahid Khan, a partner with IBB Consulting. "Consumers want to use their phones for communication, not for music."
V CAST Music with Rhapsody is currently available on select phones including LG Decoy, LG Dare, MOTO W755, Samsung SCH-u550, Samsung Glyde, and Samsung Juke.