eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
T-Mobile’s Music Freedom free music-streaming service has again been expanded, adding another 11 streaming-music services where T-Mobile customers can listen to as much music as they want without consuming their available high-speed data plans.
The Music Freedom vendor expansion has been occurring steadily since T-Mobile started the initiative for customers who have Simple Choice mobile phone plans in June 2014, when it began with seven streaming music services as part of its Un-carrier 6 Music Freedom offering. Previously, such streaming would count against a user’s data plan usage.
The latest streaming services to be added to Music Freedom are Aud.io, a high-fidelity Internet radio service; Dash Radio, a DJ-driven radio station with no commercials; DatPiff, which features mix tapes, hip-hop music, videos and underground music; Jango Internet radio; KCRW with music, NPR news, cultural exploration and public affairs programming; Noon Pacific, a weekly mix tape of hand-picked songs from the best music blogs and Radio Danz, which features dance music. Also added are SomaFM, which includes ambient, down tempo and chill beats from well-known and unknown artists; Spinrilla, which features hip-hop mix tape downloads and streams; StreamOn; and TuneIn Premium, which offers access to every NFL, MLB, and Barclays Premier League game as well as more than 600 commercial-free music stations, 40,000 audio books, and 16 language-learning programs, according to T-Mobile.
The seven original Music Freedom vendors were Pandora, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Slacker, Milk Music and Spotify. The mobile carrier has expanded the list of available music-streaming services several times since that original announcement.
The newest services now give T-Mobile 44 music-streaming services that they can use without dipping into their monthly data plans. The service is open to any and all music-streaming providers that want to participate, according to T-Mobile.
Music Freedom is now used by T-Mobile customers to stream more than 196 million songs daily, an increase of 311 percent since the program was started, according to the company.
“Nearly 40 percent of U.S. wireless consumers avoid streaming music on their phones and over half of them do it because they worry about ridiculous overage fees and bill shock,” John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile, said in a statement. “Those guys see another way to gouge their customers, and the Un-carrier sees another way to give you more freedom. With Music Freedom, our customers stream all the music they want—unlimited and unmetered. The way music is meant to be.”
In November, T-Mobile also unveiled free unlimited video streaming on devices without it counting against monthly data plans for customers who have Simple Choice cellular plans with 3GB of data or more per line. The free unlimited “Binge On” video-streaming capability is part of T-Mobile’s latest Un-carrier 10 announcements.
Under Binge On, customers with qualifying data plans can stream video content from some 24 content providers to start, including HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Showtime, Sling TV, Starz, WatchESPN and more, all without using the data in their monthly plans. The video streaming will be provided at 480p DVD quality and will be optimized to use one-third of the bandwidth that’s normally required for video, according to the company.
T-Mobile likes to call itself the Un-carrier because it says it does the things that traditional carriers won’t try. In the last few years, T-Mobile’s Un-carrier events have ended mobile contracts for consumers, removed overage charges and brought more innovations for customers.
Also in November, MetroPCS, T-Mobile’s prepaid mobile phone division, began offering its customers free unlimited music streaming. The new Music Unlimited service will allow MetroPCS customers to stream an unlimited amount of music using their mobile devices without having to use up their monthly data packages, just like its parent company. Customers on qualifying plans will be eligible to stream music from 33 music-streaming services under the service, which will be expanded with more streaming venues in the future. The Music Unlimited service will be included for all MetroPCS customers who have phone plans that include 3GB or more of 4G LTE service. Music Unlimited includes streaming music from Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Apple Music and other services.