Cingular teaming with Napster and Yahoo to roll its own music service?
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 1st 2006 10:31AM
posted Nov 1st 2006 10:31AM
According to The Wall Street Journal, those in the know are predicting Cingular to announce a music service for its cellphone network as early as tomorrow. It seems that despite rampant rumoring of an iPhone and related wireless iTunes service, Cingular is taking things into its own hands -- with a little help from Napster, Yahoo and eMusic. Initially the service will just involve rolling out PlaysForSure functionality to handsets so that they can play subscription tracks from the major non-Apple music services, but Cingular is also planning a wireless music store with pay-per-track and all-you-can-eat offerings. The phones will also purportedly feature Cingular's "Music ID" tech that will allow a user to hold the phone up to a speaker and have the song playing automatically matched with the Napster database and available for purchase. Of course, there's enough room in the world for more than one music service, and right now it appears Cingular is fine with squeezing both Apple and the PFS onto its network. The word is that (as rumored) Apple and Cingular have signed a deal to co-develop an iPhone, and the same article predicts a January launch at the Macworld Expo. Apple also has recently been awarded a phone-related speech recognition system that adds even more fuel to the fire. Being the seasoned iPhone rumor-mongers we are, we'll take all of these reports with a few grains of salt and sit back to see what actually happens.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - Cingular to announce music service [Thanks, Maurice]
Read - Apple and Cingular forge iPhone deal [Thanks, Ben]
Sounds interesting. I guess Cingular had to join the mobile music world at some point. I wonder how long it will take for kinks to be worked out.
I can also confirm, as a former Cingular employee, that the Music ID feature is a very real thing that Cingular has been working on since December 2005.
Wait, remember that photo of the female with the phone and earbuds enjoying her music? It was on the Cingular website when they revamped it. Maybe it really is happening. To bad Cingular didn't take a bit out of Apple.
This is a really dumb idea. It's like tying a bunch of rocks together to see if they'll float. Until these guys can develop a truly compelling offering (and I doubt they're ready to do so), they're going to continue to remain a very far distance behind Apple/iTunes/iPod.
It seems a much better strategy to partner than to compete... Maybe they just like losing...
I wonder if this means they'll be launching the Samsung A707 tomorrow too
Do you really think Apple would sign a deal to offer the iPhone through Cingular if Cingular's also going to promote it's own non-iTunes music store? Either Cingular's paying Jobs through the nose, or there's something seriously off with this report.
Yeah... smart move Cingular... go with some music distribution companies that have a very small percentage of market share. And chances are, it'll be very cumbersome (just like T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint).
How much do you really think this will add to your bottom line, than say a POSSIBLE iPhone and having a iTunes Music Store for wireless customers. 75% of both online music and MP3 players say something. . . If you want to keep and gain customers, you have to think outside the box and be different.
There have been iPhone rumors for years now it seems, so I wouldn't be surprised if talks between Cingular and Apple have broken down for some reason. Then again, maybe Apple isn't going to have an exclusive deal with Cingular, which would be smart on their part.
is there any other way to get music for the cingular sync without paying for it??? i have a razor and i get mine for free???