Carphone Warehouse To Offer Mobile Music Subscription

Carphone Warehouse is apparently in talks with Omniphone (which launched in Sweden last week) for an exclusive deal to offer its Music Station service on the handsets it sells. “According to music industry sources, the deal that Carphone is considering would mean that around three-quarters of the phones it sells in the key preChristmas trading period would come with Music Station software preloaded,” reports Times Online. The service offers unlimited downloads for 1.99 pounds (US$3.91) per week and the songs stop working if the subscription lapses. In many places a retailer trying to sell a subscription service would crash and burn, but many UK telcos have flat-rate data packages, so it is viable. Neither company would confirm the report.