Verizon Wireless Defends MP3 Policy

Verizon Wireless' V CAST music-download service prevents users from downloading and purchasing MP3 files on their mobile phones, but it does not preclude them from transferring PC-stored MP3 files to V CAST-supported devices, a spokesperson for the wireless company says.

Published reports have been critical of Verizon for its choice of Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10 software, which has proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology, as the platform for the new service. Because Windows Media Player 10 supports WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, not MP3s, it's true that users can only purchase WMA files through the service on the phone, says Jeffrey Nelson, Verizon's spokesperson.

However, if users already have MP3 files on their computers, they can transcode those files into WMA files via USB cable from their PCs to their V CAST phones, he says. So users can still play MP3 files on Verizon's V CAST phones if they take this extra step, Nelson says.

This capability is available because Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10 enables the transcoding of other audio file formats into WMA, says Eric Schmidt, group product manager for Windows Digital Media at Microsoft. He also says the software company had nothing to do with Verizon's decision not to support MP3 files through V CAST.

V CAST was unveiled last week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and allows Verizon subscribers to purchase songs on new Verizon handsets from LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and UT Starcom. The service is expected to go live Monday.

Nelson says that Verizon chose to use Windows Media Player 10 as the media player to run the service because it was the most user friendly. "We tested the living hell out of all the different players and all the different downloadable formats, and we chose Microsoft because the customer experience is so great and easy," he says.

Nelson adds that sometime before the end of the year, V CAST will allow users of the service to download both MP3 files and WMA files on their phones.

Out of Luck

There are still some digital music users who are out of luck if they want to play digital music files they have already purchased on their new V CAST phones. Users of Apple Computer's iTunes download service can't transfer the files into the service. The proprietary Apple DRM format, called Fairplay, is not supported on Windows Media Player 10 because Apple does not license its DRM format to third parties, says Jupiter Research DRM analyst Todd Chanko.

But Chanko said he has no sympathy for Apple users who whine about their inability to play iTunes files on Verizon V CAST phones because they know what they're getting.

"You know you're only buying an Apple-only file, and Apple doesn't license its DRM," he says. "The complaint shouldna??t be about other companies that aren't Apple that wanted to get into the digital music space, it's a Steve Jobs issue."

Still, he acknowledges that DRM and its effect on users' ability to port music across multiple devices and music-download services is a confusing issue for many consumers, one that is compounded by the availability of both one-time music purchasing services and longer-term music-subscription services.

The former, like iTunes, allow users to permanently purchase songs they can store as long as they like, Chanko says. The latter, which is what Napster and Rhapsody are trying to push, allow users to, in effect, "rent" songs as long as they pay the monthly fee for the service, he says. Napster and Rhapsody also offer one-time music purchasing.

DRM technology is more of a factor in music-purchasing services, because if a user is allowed to permanently purchase a music file, music content providers are not thrilled with the idea that they can port those files across multiple platforms and to other users, and thus are pushing DRM protection, he says.

"The music industry is not particularly keen on releasing music files out into the ether," Chanko says. "They already have that problem with compact discs."

Faulting Microsoft for being the most prominent vendor so far to create a DRM technology that can be licensed by third parties and a media player that can transcode various audio formats--or criticizing companies that decide to use that technology--won't help solve the issue, he added.

"From Verizon's perspective, if they're interested in developing a music-download service, then Microsoft is really the only game in town," he says.