Napster has inked a deal with AT&T offering access to over 5 million tracks from the digital music store's library to the wireless provider's customers. Although late entrants to the over-the-air (OTA) music game, the deal is poised to get both companies back into the mobile music fight against rivals Verizon and Sprint.
Unfortunately, the pricing is a bit of a hitch. At $1.99 a song, or $7.49 for five songs, it's comparable to Verizon's pricing, but far off-kilter from Sprint's .99 a track. Issues with the price point are only compounded by computer based digital music stores like iTunes and Amazon distributing DRM-free tracks at .99. There is a little more work involved with those solutions since they don't provide the convenience of over-the-air downloads (yet), but in terms of price and selection they may prove to be strong contenders.
It's good to see both companies rise to the occasion, but it's doubtful that today's news will put either at the front of the pack. Napster's popularity has been waning for a while due to its convoluted pricing and awkward subscription model, and AT&T's sexiest handset (yes...the iPhone) is supplied by one of Napster's biggest competitors. We'll see if things change when the service launches mid-November.
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