A Pocket Of Tunes

Nearly every major wireless carrier now offers a mobile music service for your phone. How do the plans compare? TIP SHEET put them to the earbud test.

SPRINT MUSIC STORE Demand instant gratification? For $2.50 (plus a minimum $15-per-month data plan), you can buy and download a track to your phone in less than a minute. The simple interface makes it easy to search for a song or artist and listen to 30-second previews. You can also tune in to radio, including 20 channels of Sirius ($6.95 per month) or Sprint Radio, featuring content from the likes of NPR and ESPN ($5.95 per month).

VERIZON WIRELESS V CAST MUSIC V CAST's digital storefront is less user-friendly than Sprint's, and previews play for just 20 seconds. But tunes cost only $1.99, and you don't need a data plan, though downloading does eat into your plan's minutes. If you don't need to hear Gwen's latest right this second, check out V CAST Music on your PC (integrated into Windows Media Player); there you can buy tunes for 99 cents, then transfer them to your phone.

CINGULAR MUSIC You can't buy songs directly for your phone--yet--but you can load up tunes from subscrip-tion services like Napster, Yahoo Music and Rhapsody. You'll need some sort of "to go" plan from one of these services ($12 to $15 per month), and a USB cable to transfer tunes from your computer. Napster users can purchase tunes from their phone for delivery to a PC.