Vodafone goes music mad

Pop picking, DRM-free and Warner inclusive

Posted in Music and Media, 22nd September 2009 14:14 GMT

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Vodafone has been having a busy week. It launched its very own top 40, signed up Warner Music to its download service and, this Friday, it will give away ten tracks per subscriber.

The noise is all about Vodafone relaunching its music service, with a rebranded interface promoted with some freebies and exclusive deals. But after the hype there is a ten-tracks-for-a-fiver deal for DRM-free downloads, or a fiver-a-month subscription for unlimited "rental", with both deals now including tracks from the four biggest record labels.

The operator even has eyes on Apple's latest album-concept: iTunes LP. This is basically a ZIP of tracks with some HTML and images thrown in, as vivisected by Jay Robinson. We're not sure that's what Vodafone has in mind - the idea is apparently being developed with Warner - but we're pleased to see its not just Apple who thinks albums still have legs.

But that's for the future. More immediately, on Friday this week, Vodafone customers will be able to head over to the shiny new music store and download ten tracks for free.

Those unable to decide what to download can head over to the Real Time Top 40 where the twitterati are reporting their current listening to a live list, which continues to reveal that what people really want to hear is music by the recently dead. ®

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