T-Mobile adds 14 more services to Music Freedom

T-Mobile announced the addition of several services to its Music Freedom plan, which lets listeners stream songs without counting the activity against their data plans. Google Play Music was the most-requested addition according to T-Mobile’s crowdsourcing efforts earlier this summer, and it is now included under the plan. Xbox Music and SoundCloud are the other better known names added to the list. Continue Reading

T-Mobile adds six new music services to its free-data plan

T-Mobile today announced an expansion of its Music Freedom plan, in which smartphone subscribers get unmetered data streaming of music from partner sources. Six new services have been added to the original slate of services, announced in June. The newly added partners are AccuRadio, Black Planet, Grooveshark, Radio Paradise, Rdio and Songza. Detractors still wish for global access to data-free online music from any source. Continue Reading

Rhapsody partners with Flipps to stream video content to TVs

Rhapsody has entered into a partnership with Flipps, an app for playing media from a mobile device on a television. Through this arrangement, Flipps will support the discovery and streaming of Rhapsody and Napster’s original video content, including music videos, live performances, and exclusive interviews. The deal is the latest in a busy year for Rhapsody. Continue Reading

ROK Mobile launches music app and limited cell-phone service

One month ago we reported that ROK Mobile was gearing up for a July 4 launch of its music app (ROK Music) and unlimited cell-service. Both have happened, though the wireless service portion is a tightly limited roll-out. Here’s the deal: $50/month for unlimited streaming, and a brand new music service. T-Mobile is in the unlimited-music space now, too. Can ROK differentiate itself enough to lure consumers? Continue Reading

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Rusty Hodge: Unfairness in T-Mobile’s unmetered music streaming

Rusty Hodge is founder and general manage of SomaFM, one of the most enduring and successful pureplay Internet radio outlets. Started in 2000, SomaFM now operates 20 stations, of which Groove Salad is perhaps the best known. In this guest column, he proposes that T-Mobile’s unmetered music-streaming initiative is unfair to independent online radio stations, possibly violates net neutrality principles, and can be solved. Continue Reading

T-Mobile game changer: Unlimited data for music

Wireless company T-Mobile announced a change to its cell-phone service plans that potentially impacts how consumers choose their telecom providers, music services, and even cars. Called Music Freedom, it affords unlimited music streaming for “major” music services, regardless of the plan’s data cap. A related deal with Rhapsody sweetens the package. In an era when paying for data can be more burdensome than paying for music, this initiative could turn some heads. Continue Reading

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Rhapsody unRadio: Shrewdly targeting Pandora and Spotify

In its most important structural change in years, and a meaningful expansion of its business model, on-demand music service Rhapsody has announced unRadio, and added the new listening experience to all its apps. At the same time, Rhapsody is starting a partnership with T-Mobile, wherein unRadio is available free of charge to T-Mobile wireless cell-phone customers.

As a stand-alone service, whether through T-Mobile or not, unRadio shrewdly combines lean-back listening, similar to Pandora, with on-demand interactivity, similar to Spotify and Rhapsody’s own Premier plan. Rhapsody is effectively straddling the gulf between free listening supported by advertising, and the full interactivity of a celestial music jukebox. It could hit a sweet spot for some music-lovers. Continue Reading