Sprint, Interscope offer exclusive studio sessions

Sprint has inked a deal with recording powerhouse Interscope Records to bring new, original music content exclusively to its subscribers through a program called "The Sprint Music Series." The program features well-known artists like Busta Rhymes, Dashboard Confessional and Keane in up-close, unfiltered and made-for-mobile studio sessions. The Dashboard session kicks the series off this Friday on Sprint TV's Channel 33. The series continues every Friday for the next eight weeks. The Sprint Music Series is free for all Sprint PCS Vision and Power Vision customers with multimedia phones and data plans.

Sprint will also sell exclusive live recordings of the sessions as ringtones and videotones as well as full-song downloads from the Sprint Music Store, which makes for a savvy marketing tie-up. However, Interscope's head of new media and strategic marketing got a bit carried away with the offering: "This summer, Sprint customers won't have to worry about the potential rain, mosquitoes or stadium traffic of an outdoor concert and can instead see and listen to great performances whenever they have a few extra minutes..." Cute, but that shouldn't be the marketing angle here: An HD broadcast of a concert on a big screen TV is impressive, and I'm sure an intimate, up-close mobile experience also has its place, but neither will replace attending the concert in person.

For more on Sprint and Interscope's made-for-mobile music sessions:
- check out this article from Rap News