Cricket Archive

Wireless provider Cricket has launched a new mobile music program today. After reviewing the materials, I found the pricing model to be a bit confusing for the average user. It looks like songs downloaded directly to the phone are $2 or 3 for $5/month. But if you download them via the Cricket website they are $1 but to use the song on your mobile, you need to pay an additional $1.25. Cricket’s Mobile Music service is managed by LiveWire Mobile.

From the release, "Customers can search music by artist, album, song and genre to purchase tracks and download them directly to their Cricket phone for $1.99 each, or receive three download credits for a $5 monthly charge. Songs are available online at www.mycricket.com for $.99 each and customers can use Cricket’s Music Manager software to sideload the tracks to their mobile phone, or buy two copies of each song, one for their PC and one for their phone for $2.25 per song."

Why wouldn’t a Cricket customer just download the songs on their current music provider (iTunes, etc.) and then upload them to the phone? Some of Cricket’s phones support a SD card so they should be able to handle music as well. The price seems expensive at $2 when most online music sites are currently offering songs for $1.

Cricket also noted that they have partnered with Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em which allows Cricket customers to download a free two-week playable version of the artist’s latest song.