UPDATED 10:53 EDT / AUGUST 19 2011

Music + Mobile Makes Melodic Marketing for MetroPCS, Others

Earlier this week, MetroPCS Communications, Inc. , the fifth largest wireless carrier in the US and Rhapsody, the leading on-demand music service, announced the unlimited mobile music experience for MetroPCS subscribers.

The unlimited mobile music is bundled with unlimited voice, text and data plan on Android devices for $60 per month.  To avail of this, you can either sign-up through MetroPCS’ site or by calling 1-888-8metro8.

“Our customers want a rich entertainment experience, and music tops their charts. With the addition of the Rhapsody service, MetroPCS takes yet another step to deliver premium service at an unmatched value,” said Tom Keys, president and COO of MetroPCS. “Rhapsody Unlimited Music service not only delivers ‘music for all’ but also gives consumers convenient access to their music collections on our expanding portfolio of Android devices.”

The deal already hit its first bump on the road as Warner Music Group has not yet licensed its music to be used in the service.  Artists under WMG are Green Day, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park, but even without them, MetroPCS still offers a massive playlist with 12 million songs available for Android users to enjoy.

Rival company Leap Wireless’ Cricket Communication offers an all-you-can-eat buffet of music streaming service called Muve bundled up with unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited messaging, mobile web access, data backup and video for only $55 per month.  MOG, another music streaming service, has tied up with Verizon and will soon come as a pre-installed app for 4G Android phones.

So with wireless carriers offering unlimited music streaming for subscribers, how can RIM compete with these guys?  RIM is not that focused on the streaming sector of the music service, they are aiming for the sharing aspect of it through BBM.  Though no additional information has been released about this since it’s still in its negotiation phase, I’m just guessing that since RIM’s music app will be integrated into BBM, there will be no need to change your wireless plans so you don’t have to pay extra just to add music streaming on your device.

Nevertheless, integrated music services is another way in which the personal cloud sector gets a boost through mobile devices.  It’s becoming quite a marketing ploy, and may even soon be an expected standard as carriers find ways to offer an iTunes-like experience on non iOS devices.  Media is very important to the mobile industry, as smartphones lord over feature phones, and tablets threaten to one day replace the PC.  Cloud-based content delivery will be a driving force for consumer cloud services, and connected mobile devices will demand integrated media to make the personal cloud a very appealing, service-based attraction.


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