The legal music downloading business has taken a big step forward in recent weeks, and I’m not referring to Apple Computer’s much-touted move to sell videos on its iTunes Music Store. I’m talking about something that got much less attention: the launch of the first legal music downloading service you can access right from a cellphone.

Some cellphones already are able to play songs copied from computers, or streamed from an online radio-type service. And cellphone carriers have long sold snippets of songs as ringtones, which can be downloaded onto phones. But the new Sprint Music Store, unveiled by Sprint Nextel a couple of weeks ago, is the first service that allows complete songs to be purchased and downloaded directly from a cellphone, without a computer.

They say the price is too high? It’s just about a quarter of a dollar here in the Philippines.

Source: WSJ

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