Moto Tunes to iRadio

The RED HERRING reports that Motorola will team up with Universal Music Group to offer its music catalog—including artists such as U2, Kanye West, and Sheryl Crow— for the iRadio service Motorola plans to launch early next year. According to the article, iRadio "music or talk programs are cached on to the cell phone for one-time play. It is erased after it’s played. Subscribers cannot rewind or fast forward. They can only pause the program." The monthly fee has yet to be determined, but is rumored to be less than $10 a month.

Charles Golvin at Forrester Research, said "It plays on one of the values of mobility and acts as a bridge from one environment to another," since it uses Bluetooth. Golvin added, "People don’t enjoy music based on who publishes it, by labels. It’s by artists." More labels will need to be added as well as cooperations with the carriers. "iRadio is not going to be warmly embraced by Cingular, Verizon, or T-Mobile if it’s only available to their customers with Motorola phones,” he said.

Brad Akyu at Current Analysis commenting on battery usage said, consumers are "buying the phone to make calls. Listening to music is a great functionality, but we all know that consumers prioritize voice functionalities over all other priorities on the phone." In addition, "Consumers will have a lot of other options to choose from, and most likely they are going to go for the cheapest option first. Radio is great, but if I can just create my own playlist, like iPod, if it’s cheaper, I would prefer to do that."

Regarding pricing, Golvin chimed in that "It’s my impression that consumers who want to take this music experience onto their phones are going to be paying some data service charges for the traffic they are enjoying, and a critical factor is how operators choose to price those access charges."

Akyuz concluded that "It’s a compelling proposition,. It’s definitely unique."