According to The New York Times, eMusic is working with AT&T to deliver music from indie bands on the network’s mobile platform.
Tracks will cost more than they do over the Internet — $7.49 for five songs, as opposed to $9.99 for 30 at the online site — because of the expense of sending them over a mobile network to a user’s phone. For that price, however, users can also get another copy of the song, which they can download from the Internet as an MP3.
eMusic currently has a marketing deal with AT&T to encourage consumers to “sideload” their phones with MP3s from its existing Internet store — meaning that they can plug their phones into their computers to transfer the music. But this will be its first time selling music on a mobile network.
AT&T is also the service provider for Apple’s iPhone, but eMusic’s over-the-air service will not work on that device. Although the iPhone is fully compatible with Apple’s iTunes program, it does not allow users to buy songs without signing on to a computer.