C/Net reports that Cingular Wireless is expected to announce a new online music service in partnership with several online music services including Napster, Yahoo Music and eMusic, according to an article published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.
NOTE: Cingular has made it official. Cingular also teamed with XM Satellite Radio to offer mobile access to 25 popular commercial-free audio streams for $8.99 a month. Cingular will launch the service November 6th which will be hosted by MobiTV, the mobile television service that streams over Sprint’s data service (or WiFi). Cingular’s 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology.
The service would allow cell phones to double as music players. Initially, songs will only be able to be downloaded from a computer, but eventually the service could offer over-the-air downloads, the article said.
Adding weight to these rumors is Cingular’s current relationship with Apple. Last year, it became the exclusive provider for the Motorola Rokr phone, which is the only phone that plays audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, Cingular’s two biggest rivals, already offer services that allow people to download songs over the air onto their cell phones.
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