Vodafone goes live with MusicStation mobile music service

Girls%20Aloud004.jpg

We knew it was coming, but this morning Vodafone went live with MusicStation, the £1.99-a-week music subscription service from Omnifone. They even persuaded Girls Aloud to totter along to the launch and grab the first downloads through the service.

It’s launching with 1.2 million tracks available, as well as live charts, personalised music news, and social networking features letting users sign up friends and share their playlists.

iPhone UK launch: O2's iPhone (and iTunes) versus Vodafone's MusicStation

omnifone-musicstation-vodafone.jpgO2 may have bagged the iPhone, but keen readers will know that Vodafone got its retaliation in super-early, with the announcement a couple of weeks ago that it would be launching Omnifone’s subscription-based MusicStation service in November. So how do they compare?

Well, Omnifone already has a document providing a direct comparison between the two services, which it supplied when we asked for its views. Unsurprisingly, MusicStation comes out on top for questions like ‘Available on prepay?’, ‘Cheapest device’ and features like social networking, playlist-sharing and personalised news.

Vodafone signs up MusicStation mobile music service to battle iTunes / Nokia Music Store

omnifone-musicstation-vodafone.jpgIt’s safe to assume Vodafone HASN’T got the iPhone, then. The company has announced an exclusive deal with Omnifone to launch the latter’s MusicStation subscription service in the UK for Christmas.

It’ll cost £1.99 a week for unlimited music downloads, with the MusicStation application being preloaded on new Vodafone handsets, but also working with existing phones too (presumably you’ll be able to download the application from Vodafone’s Live portal).