Coming in way behind its US competition, AT&T has teamed up with eMusic, an independent music retailer to bring music downloads to its customer base. Trailing the efforts already in place by companies like Sprint and Verizon, AT&T takes an interesting approach at online wireless music downloads.
Coming in at about mid-range in pricing, AT&T has released information that their song downloads will cost $1.50 per Track, sitting squarely between Sprint's 99 cent deal and Verizon's $1.99 per track offering. There appears to also be a package deal where you can download 5 songs for the inflated price of $7.49.
This is a strange move for AT&T to allow only independent music to its customers as marketing strategies show that most mobile music purchases are impulse, and most impulse buys will be current billboard hits, not independent offerings. eMusic will not offer music in its catalog that is anywhere close to a mainstream billboard. Additionally, AT&T does not offer wireless music downloads to its partnered flagship, the Apple iPhone of which it has exclusive rights. Finally, the eMusic service will not work with the iPhone.
With research showing that only a scant 5% of music fans listen to the songs on their mobile phones, its interesting to see why AT&T decided to not only come into the game this late, but only offer tracks from lesser known artists at an inflated rate.
Source:
Reuters
This is a strange move for AT&T to allow only independent music to its customers as marketing strategies show that most mobile music purchases are impulse, and most impulse buys will be current billboard hits, not independent offerings. eMusic will not offer music in its catalog that is anywhere close to a mainstream billboard. Additionally, AT&T does not offer wireless music downloads to its partnered flagship, the Apple iPhone of which it has exclusive rights. Finally, the eMusic service will not work with the iPhone.
With research showing that only a scant 5% of music fans listen to the songs on their mobile phones, its interesting to see why AT&T decided to not only come into the game this late, but only offer tracks from lesser known artists at an inflated rate.
Source:
Reuters
