Sprint Corp. on Wednesday said it would offer Listen.com’s Rhapsody music subscription services to its broadband customers, joining a growing list of such providers to provide music services.
Sprint also said it would offer its PCS wireless customers Rhapsody 411, a music information service, including album reviews, artist recommendations, album art and full-color artist photos directly from their phones.
Sprint is the second wireless company to offer Rhapsody 411 after AT&T Wireless Services Inc, underscoring the trend that wireless carriers are increasingly looking to offer music features.
Sony Corp., for instance, recently bought a provider of cellphone ring-tones while two competitors in the emerging market for wireless music sales announced distribution deals of their own.
The music industry, which suffered setbacks due in part to its failure to jump on the Internet before Napster and file-swapping services exploded on the scene, hopes to avoid the same fate with ring-tones and the wireless market, analysts have said.
