Sprint Music Store nixes PC downloads

Songs downloaded directly to your Sprint handset will still cost 99 cents, but you'll no longer be able to grab a separate copy for your PC; instead, your purchased music will only play on your phone. Great.

Sprint has notified subscribers that starting October 15, it'll no longer offer a separate PC copy of tunes purchased from the Sprint Music Store (this according to RCR Wireless News). Basically, that means that any music you buy on your Sprint phone will stay on your Sprint phone, permanently. (If you still want PC copies of your Sprint Music Store tunes, you'd best get cracking before the Oct. 15 deadline.) And while you'll be able to back up the DRM-protected Sprint Music Store songs on your PC, you won't be able to play them on your system.

That's a pretty high price to pay for the privilege of buying and downloading tunes directly to your Sprint phone—at least if you ask me.

Not that buying songs directly on a phone has ever been a huge bargain, of course. Verizon Wireless now offers DRM-free PC downloads for songs purchased over VCast, which is great—except tracks cost a whopping $1.99 each, compared to 99 cents for the Sprint Music Store.

Meanwhile, songs from the Wi-Fi iTunes Music Store cost just 99 cents each—but save for a fraction of DRM-free "iTunes Plus" tracks, you'll have to deal with Apple's Fairplay DRM system, which only lets you play purchased tunes on iPods, iPhones, and a set number of Macs or PCs.

Given the new restrictions on the Sprint Music Store, my question is this: Why bother? I'd much rather forgo the instant gratification of over-the-air music downloads than get stuck with tunes that only work on a single phone.

Instead, try this on for size: Buy DRM-free tracks (for 99 cents each) once from the likes of Amazon (or Napster or Rhapsody) and then side-load them to your phone—or transfer them to any device you have that plays MP3s.

So, I'm curious: Does anyone out there regularly buy tunes from the Sprint Music Store (or Verizon Wireless' VCast, for that matter)? And if so … well, why?

Related:
Sprint Nextel set to ditch PC song downloads [RCR Wireless News]