T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) said it is adding AccuRadio, Black Planet, Grooveshark, Radio Paradise, Rdio and Songza to the Music Freedom program it first announced in June. The carrier also said that its customers have streamed almost 7,000 terabytes of music since the launch of the program, and that its customers are streaming 5 million more songs per day than before the carrier launched Music Freedom.
T-Mobile's Music Freedom program essentially zero-rates the data generated by select music streaming services, so that the data charges incurred by the services are not applied to users' monthly data allotments.
The carrier launched the service in June with support for iHeartRadio, iTunesRadio, Pandora, Rhapsody, Slacker and Spotify and has also added Samsung's Milk service. At the June launch, T-Mobile also allowed customers to vote for services they wished to add to the list--the carrier said today that, after almost three-quarters of a million votes, Google Play Music "topped the charts" as the most requested service by customers. T-Mobile said it is on track to add Google Play Music to the Music Freedom program later this year.
"When the big 'carriers' look at music, they see an opportunity to use someone's passion to make a buck. When the Un-carrier looks at music, we see an opportunity to set customers free from the tolls and limitations those carriers impose," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement.
T-Mobile isn't the only U.S. carrier wading into the streaming music waters. Sprint (NYSE: S) announced in April that it would give its "Framily" plan customers discounts on Spotify's service. Under Sprint's teaming with Spotify, which went into effect May 9, all customers on Sprint's Framily calling plans get a free, six-month trial of Spotify. However, Sprint is transitioning away from Framily in favor of its new shared data plans for families and its $60 per month unlimited everything plan for individuals.
AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) too has an agreement with Beats that it announced in January. The deal gives AT&T customers on family plans a discount on the Beats Music streaming service. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in May said it will acquire Beats for $3 billion.
Also, streaming music isn't the only data exempt from T-Mobile's data charges. The carrier is also whitelisting data from network speed-testing apps. And T-Mobile's GoSmart Mobile prepaid brand in January announced a plan to offer unmetered access to Facebook.
For more:
- see this T-Mobile release
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