T-Mobile is adding 14 more music-streaming services to its Music Freedom program, including Google Play Music.
The additional services mean users will be able to stream as much music as they want through the services without the data usage counting against their plans.
"Music Freedom is pro-consumer, pro-music and pure Un-carrier," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. "And today we're taking another huge step toward our ultimate goal of including every streaming music service in the program. Anyone can play. No one pays. And everyone wins."
The news comes after T-Mobile added a number of streaming services in August, including Rdio, Songza, AccuRadio, Grooveshark, iTunes Radio, Samsung Milk Music and more. The list of new services includes Soundcloud, Xbox Music, Live365, Fresca Radio and more.
"Music Freedom has been wildly popular since its launch this summer," said the company in a statement. "The number of T-Mobile customers streaming music each day has jumped nearly 300 percent, and they're streaming a whopping 66 million songs per day -- or roughly 200 terabytes of data per day -- on T-Mobile's Data Strong network." A terabyte is a thousand gigabytes and is equivalent of 472 hours of broadcast-quality video or about 150 hours of high-definition recording.
While the deal certainly seems good for customers, more than a few industry watchers are suggesting the new feature sets a dangerous precedent in terms of net neutrality. According to the company, music-streaming services are selected both by consumer voting and by services contacting T-Mobile to ask for inclusion. This is less worrisome because it means T-Mobile is not trying to shut out smaller music streaming services, but rather just catering to what the masses want.
According to the company, after the Music Freedom program was introduced, the number of T-Mobile customers streaming music jumped 300 percent. This equates to around 66 million songs, or 200 terabytes of data, per day. One in four customers reported they began streaming music because of the Music Freedom program.
T-Mobile first announced it was working toward adding Google Play Music to its streaming services in August because it was at the top of the most-wanted music-streaming services list.
Competition between mobile carriers is heating up, with T-Mobile being viewed by many as an industry leader in innovation for mobile plans. In the past year there has largely been a shift away from offering two-year plans to offering more prepaid plans or month-to-month plans. T-Mobile is currently the fourth-largest mobile carrier in the U.S. Some reports predict it may be third-largest by the end of the year.
