Wireless saved the radio star

Forget mobile video, multiplayer gaming and location-based services--your wireless handset may instead find its true calling as the next-generation equivalent of a transistor radio. Last week Sprint announced the debut of MSpot Radio, a new streaming radio service delivering subscribers 13 channels of music, news and talk, and this week Cingular Wireless launched Cingular Sounds, a mobile music program offering new singles as exclusive 30-second ringtones before or concurrent with their release to traditional broadcast outlets.

It makes sense that broadcasters and record labels would look to wireless networks not only as a means to capitalize on existing popular hits via ringtones and video downloads, but to premiere and promote new music as well. As FM radio gives way to Clear Channel-mandated playlists that recycle the same 20 songs over and over and MTV continues to exile music videos from its programming, there are increasingly few opportunities for consumers to discover new music through traditional channels. For a growing number of people, the solution has been satellite radio services.

Satellite radio providers XM and Sirius now count a cumulative customer base in excess of five million after only three-and-a-half years of existence. Their subscribers pay about $100 per year for a broadcasting medium they used to experience gratis, with the critical difference that XM and Sirius are both commercial-free. And whatever your interest--vintage honky-tonk, Scandinavian death metal, or even old-time radio serials--there's a satellite channel for you.

Satellite radio has proven consumers will pay for music services, but wireless carriers can up the ante on XM and Sirius by making this kind of premium broadcasting portable, a la the transistor radios of days past. Wireless carriers can also make these services cheaper--while XM and Sirius require their subscribers to purchase tuners, there's no additional hardware investment for mobile users beyond their existing handsets. Most important, carriers can make radio interactive. If Warner Music and EMI Music are finding it difficult to promote up-and-coming acts through conventional channels, just imagine what it's like for garage bands and electronic composers without major-label backing. But aspiring musicians could upload their work to wireless networks for curious listeners to download.

None of this means voice services won't continue to dominate wireless, of course. But if one of those voices belongs to Billie Holiday, then all the better for consumers--and for carrier revenues.

E-mail me at jankeny@primediabusiness.com.