iTunes cheating on iPhone with Alltel and nuTsie

In trying to catch up to the iPhone and all its new fandangled features, like playing music, Alltel is the latest, or should we say last, cell phone provider to announce that they are jumping into the music/cell phone 2 Become 1 game.

Now, with Alltell's nuTsie service you can stream music from your iTunes library. Yes it's really called nuTsie, no we're not exactly sure how to pronounce it.



nuTsie is an online music station, a lot like Pandora, that allows you to create playlists, by "grabbing" songs in their database and just listening for free. Except with nuTsie you can also upload your iTunes library and create an online place for you to stream your iTunes music. Well, nuTsie can play most of the stuff in your iTunes library. Really all it does is see the artists and titles in your library then pulls the ones they have in their database and creates a playlist for you. Granted they don't have everything, but they're off to a good start. It's actually super cool if your iPod battery dies and you're stuck in a cubical at work all day. Now, you can just access most of your library anywhere there is an Internet connection.

But that's just the online system, here's the catch if you want nuTsie on your cell phone, you have pay for it. Cue foreboding music indicating doom. Something along the lines of dun, dun dun.

That's right; you can pay to stream music you've already purchased. In addition to the online access, nuTsie has a mobile software application for BlackBerry that costs a one-time fee of $19.99. Or if you are a member of the Alltel network (and who isn't, "We hate you Chad!") you can download the nuTsie mobile application and pay a $4.99 monthly fee or a $19.99 one year subscription. Compare that to VCast Rhapsody that dings you about $15 a month. If those are my choices I'd take nuTusie.

Probably.

From the looks of it, nuTsie is compatible with BlackBerry and about a dozen Alltel phones, but the execution of the software isn't exactly there yet. Because of licensing issues, nuTsie is still in negotiations with some record labels limiting some music selection and the mobile software isn't able browse by song or artist (but you can browse on the website). You're kind of stuck with your iTunes playlist and the stuff they suggest. Think of it like an iPod Shuffle on your cell phone.

I'd like to be snarky about another cell phone provider trying to get into the "cool kids" crowd that Apple has seemed to take over, but if done right the nuTsie Alltel relationship could prove beneficial to both. For this thing to work nuTsie needs to get more artists and get that software up to par, because let's face it, the house that Apple built was on iTunes, not iPod.

We've got cell phone reviews and music download service reviews for you to compare nuTsie with. Or you could just keep going with the awesome blog posts:

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