The major labels hope that over-the-air downloading of full-length songs to cell phones for instantaneous listening will be the next big thing. But Sprint, the first to introduce this service in the U.S., may not have gotten things exactly right.

HIGH PRICE FOR SONGS

First and foremost the songs are priced at $2.50 each. You can buy the same songs on iTunes for 99 cents. The New York Times review of this new service (David Pogue) asks the obvious question, “What are they, nuts?” What makes Sprint think it can charge two and a half times as much as music they can legally obtain elsewhere? "It's a new market, the first service of its kind, serving a different type of customer," Jackie Bostick, a Sprint spokeswoman, said. "We are not necessarily going after people who are downloading tons of music online." (Translation: "Please don't bring up the iTunes thing.")

But at least one customer, according to the NY Times article, perceives logic in Sprint's strategy: "It's the same reason I pay $8 for a hot dog at a baseball game. I could have the same dog at home for 23 cents, but I pay the premium because it gives me the hot dog where I am, when I want it." Also $2.50 a song is actually less than the price of many ring tones. As hard to believe as it seems to adults, teenagers throughout the world are eager to pay $2.50 each or even more, just for a 20-second excerpt of a hip hop or pop song to use as a ring sound. Now they can get the whole song for just $2.50. There's another mitigating factor: Songs you download directly to the phone stay on the phone, but the $2.50 also includes a second copy of each song, which you can download directly to a Windows XP computer. You can also burn them to a CD, play them on two other computers and transfer them to a MP3 player. But they will not play on an iPod, only players using Microsoft's Plays For Sure.

SIDELOADING

At $2.50 a download, however, the consumer may be tempted to “sideload” music files from their desktop into the phone. Apparently the record companies have been unable to get the headset manufacturers to prevent this capability. Since many consumers have already paid for, or otherwise obtained, huge amounts of music on their computers, it would seem that they may prefer to load their phones for free rather than pay an additional $2.50 per song.

ADDITIONAL FEES

In addition to the $2.50 per song, in order to get the new service you must buy one of two expensive phones: the Sanyo MM-9000 for $230 or the Samsung SPH-A940 for $250, including rebate and a two year service agreement. Then you must pay for Sprint’s Internet connection service called Power Vision for $15-$25 per month, and a higher-capacity memory card that starts at $60. According to the NY Times “Online, the overwhelming reaction to Sprint's pricing is disgust and sarcasm.”

LIMITED CATALOGUE

The catalog offers only 250,000 songs. This is approximately an eighth of iTunes’ repertoire. The most famous artists from the four big record companies (Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI) are here, but you won't find many classical performers or indie labels or artists. Sprint says the catalog will improve.

NO RINGTONE ADAPTABILITY

And you can't use your downloaded songs as ring tones. If you like a certain track, you'll have to pay $2.50 for the ring tone, and another $2.50 for the whole song. On the other hand, if Sprint and the labels allowed for this capability it would completely cannibalize ringtones which reached 4 billion in sales worldwide last year.

WHAT SPRINT GOT RIGHT

From a design standpoint, at least, Sprint got a lot right. When you click the Music icon on your phone, you wait about only six seconds before arriving at the online music store. Navigation is quick and easy. With a couple clicks you can search by song title or band name, using the number keys to enter text. You can also browse by musical genre. You can listen to a free 30-second preview, or press the buy button and download the complete track. A typical song arrives in about a half a minute, ready for playback or you can create a playlist. Incoming phone calls automatically pause the music.

CONCLUSION

Although Sprint’s service is a start, this form of delivering music will get no where fast unless improvements are made, especially reducing the price to compete effectively with other sources of digital music. Until then, the NY Times may be right in asserting that “The average music fan is to be forgiven for concluding that the whole enterprise reeks of greed.”

Sprint’s new music store is available in the 75 cities identified at www.sprint.com/wirelesshighspeeddata.