MetroPCS teams with Rhapsody, taking a play from Cricket's Muve Music

Wireless operator MetroPCS has teamed with music service Rhapsody to extend its Unlimited Music service to MetroPCS Android phone owners on its $60 monthly rate plan.

Along with unlimited talk, text and Web access, subscribers can now get unlimited access to Rhapsody's trove of 12 million songs. They can download or stream as many as they'd like, unfettered by (they're looking at you, iTunes) "the per-track charges that come with most other music download services," the carrier said in a statement.

The offer, while surely a response of sorts to Apple's success with iTunes, appears to be modeled after Cricket's Wireless' Muve Music service. (CP: Cricket's Muve Music service succeeding by untraditional means) Cricket similarly allows users to download as many songs as they'd like and ties the service to its $55 monthly unlimited plan, but offers Muve on only one phone — the specially designed, music-inclined Samsung Suede. Creating extra "stickiness" for the carrier — and the contract-free Suede — users can enjoy their downloaded tracks repeatedly, but they can't transfer them to other devices, which means losing them should they switch carriers.

Even a "free" music collection is tough to leave behind.

In just a handful of months, Muve Music helped Cricket attract more than 100,000 users — a notable accomplishment in a competitive field — though Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett has pointed out that Cricket's rather specific subscriber base has been a factor in its success (Unfiltered: Key to Muve Music model, says Bernstein Research, is low-earning customers and a sweet music label deal).

According to Moffett, more than half of Cricket's subscribers earn less than $35,000 a year and 45% have no credit card.

Is MetroPCS similarly suited to mimic such success?

"We're always looking at how our customers live their lives," Gavin Throckmorton, MetroPCS' staff vice president of product management, told Connected Planet, politely sidestepping the question. He added that the service eliminates the need to pay per-song with a credit card, allowing subscribers to just pay their bill, in cash if they like, once a month.

Was the relationship inspired by Cricket's success?

"The partnership with Rhapsody is inspired by our customers' requirements," said Throckmorton. When customers were asked what's important to them, an area that "continually bubbled up to the top" was the ability to enjoy music from their handsets, he added.

Unlike Cricket, MetroPCS offers five Android handsets users can choose from, and it will be available on all Android phones going forward. But like Cricket, cancel your service and you kiss your music collection goodbye.