Verizon rolls out new music service

LAS VEGAS — Verizon Wireless customers will be able to download songs directly to their cellphones in a new service developed with Microsoft, the two companies announced Thursday.

The service, called V Cast Music, will sell a dual-download — for a phone and personal computer — of a song for $1.99. It will cost 99 cents to buy a song on the PC alone, although once purchased the song could be transferred to a phone.

The service launches Jan. 16 with about 500,000 songs. It will have a library of 1 million songs by the spring, Verizon Wireless said.

Mobile music is expected to be a $3 billion industry in the United States in four years, said Denny Strigl, president and chief executive of Verizon Wireless, at a news conference announcing the service. Wireless carriers are counting on it to rise in popularity, similar to how ringtone sales have soared in the past couple of years.

"We're not after the narrow music-player market," Strigl said. "V Cast Music will not only revolutionize your wireless phone, it will revolutionize music."

V Cast Music joins the V Cast video and television service Verizon Wireless already offers subscribers. Other wireless carriers have been testing the waters of the downloadable music business, with Sprint offering a service by Andover, Mass.-based Groove Mobile. The Sprint Music Store sells tracks for $2.50 apiece. Amp'd Mobile, a wireless startup in Los Angeles, is providing downloads for 99 cents, the price of a song at the popular Apple iTunes store.

Verizon Wireless' service is the first to have such a deep partnership with Microsoft, which developed the content protection system for the music.

Users can move their music collections between a Windows XP computer and certain wireless phones that work with the service, including LG VX8100 and Samsung's a950. Current owners of those phones will have to take them into a Verizon store to get a firmware upgrade. The phones can play music in the Windows Media or the MP3 formats.

The Verizon Wireless announcement comes as Microsoft develops a music service called Urge with MTV Networks. With Urge a potential rival to V Cast, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer painted his company as an equal-opportunity partner in the music business.

"We think the right way to do music long-term is to have a variety of participants and a variety of different devices on which people can enjoy music," Ballmer said. "We think having content that can flow with appropriate protection across those devices is the right way to go."

Neil Strother, a research director covering the wireless industry for The NPD Group, said the service was a bold move for Verizon Wireless — particularly the decision to allow phones to hold more songs than the Rokr phone. But the price might be a little high. Strother said his research has shown that people don't want to pay more than about $1.80 to buy a song for their cellphone.

"Music will be very big this year, and this is definitely a leader's move," he said.

Kim Peterson: 206-464-2360 or kpeterson@seattletimes.com. Seattle Times technology reporter Tricia Duryee contributed to this story.