EMusic, the nation’s second-largest online music seller after Apple’s iTunes, plans to announce a deal with AT&T today that will allow people to buy songs from independent labels through their cellphones, without the need to go through a personal computer.
Several services, including those run by Sprint and Verizon, let people buy songs directly over the air. But they focus on songs by mainstream performers like Prince, who has a deal with Verizon. EMusic sells music only from independent labels, a category that these days includes the new album from Paul McCartney as well as obscure punk bands. The arrangement with AT&T Mobile Music will make those songs available just as easily as the more conventional ones.
For indie labels, this is a probably a good thing. It lets their artists get their stuff out there. We'll see how the software client is set up. So, how much does it cost:
Tracks will cost more than they do over the Internet--$7.49 for five songs, as opposed to $9.99 for 30 at the online site--because of the expense of sending them over a mobile network to a user's phone. For that price, however, users can also get another copy of the song, which they can download from the Internet as an MP3.It has potential for people who are interesting in stuff they can't find in Clear Channel-run radio stations (if people still listen to read) and the top 100 on iTunes. That would include me. But I don't think there are many people like me out there.
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