AT&T and Napster Mobile team up to offer music downloads

Wireless network music provided by AT&T and Napster Mobile with five million songs.

AT&T on Monday announced an extension of its relationship with Napster, and beginning next month will offer subscribers access to over-the-air downloads of songs from the company's catalog of over five million tracks.

Those of AT&T's 63 million subscribers with compatible phones will be able to buy songs a la carte for $1.99 each, which includes a copy that can be downloaded to a PC; five-song bundles will also be offered for $7.49 per month.

AT&T launched a similar offering with digital music retailer eMusic last month, and also partnered with Apple to offer iTunes software for mobile phones and the iTunes Wi-Fi Store on the iPhone.

In any case, this is a smart move because it does offer more content on AT&T phones and allows the company to compete with other wireless providers directly.

Rivals Sprint and Verizon have offered over-the-air song download services for over a year.