Click to View

Verizon Wireless has launched V CAST Music, an audio service that allows subscribers to purchase and download tunes directly to their cell phones over-the-air (OTA) or straight to their PCs. Verizon's service follows competitor Sprint's own music initiative—the Sprint Music Store a few months ago—which offers similar features.

The cost of downloading songs to one of two initially supported V CAST handsets - LG VX8100 ($150) and Samsung a950 (see top image, $100) - is a whopping $1.99. But that includes two copies of each track; one for the phone and another for the PC.

Should you choose to buy a track while at your Windows XP computer, the price drops to an industry typical $0.99 for a single version of the song. Customers can also purchase entire albums at varying prices.

Users 'transfer' (more on this later) V CAST songs and existing audio files from their collection to their V CAST phones and compatible portable music players via a USB capable from their PC.

For storage, the Samsung a950 supports the tiny microSD expansion card format, while the LG VX8100 offers the not-as-diminutive-but-still-small miniSD card. 1 GB cards store up to 480 songs, according to Verizon. A 1 GB microSD and 2 GB miniSD will be available in February from the operator: both formats bundle an adapter to fit with standard SD devices.

Verizon stocks about a half million songs currently, but has plans to up that number to a million by spring. The carrier is offering some exclusive and free tracks from artists like The Fugees, Shakira, Yellowcard and OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) to mark the launch of V CAST.

The V CAST Music service costs $15 per month on top of your regular voice and data plans.

Controversy
Since Verizon unveiled V CAST Music at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, there has been some debate about whether or not it supports the popular MP3 audio file format. V CAST phones uses Windows Media Player 10 for WMA( Windows Media Audio) audio file support.

We've found out that users purchase WMA files exclusively from Verizon via V CAST for the phone, but if they already have MP3s on their PC those files are changed into the WMA format when transferred onto the handset.

So - to many potential users chagrin - you can't listen to MP3s as is on your V CAST handset, they have to be transcoded. The problem is transcoding could cause a loss in sound quality.

It is also an unnecessary step, as the handsets in question already support MP3s. So Verizon could have supported MP3s natively on the handsets, but chose not to - it asserts - to keep things simple for subscribers.

Recent reports indicate the carrier is having a change of heart because of the uproar, so don't be surprised if you see full-fledged MP3 music files sitting alongside WMA formatted songs on a V CAST phone before too long.

Another caveat: people who own music purchased through the Apple’s iTunes service can't use those files with V CAST Music because Apple uses a proprietary DRM (digital rights management) technology called Fairplay that it won't license to third parties.

This is a second disappointment for iTunes users looking for a mobile handset/audio player combo. The first, the Motorola ROKR E1, appeared last fall and generated a great big thud throughout the tech world—becasue of an artificial 100 song limit, slow USB connectivity, inability to download music OTA, etc.—inspite of Motorola’s implementation of the award winning iPod user interface.

The follow up to the ROKR E1 - ROKR E2 - introduced at CES - isn't connected with Apple and the iTunes brand, but offers a whole lot more functionality.

Rumors of an Apple-branded iPod phone persist, however.