Hungama has launched an online music store, called Tata Photon Music, for subscribers of the wireless internet service Tata Photon. The website offers Bollywood, International, Devotional and Regional music, in addition to music videos and mobile ringtones & wallpapers. The only pricing plan that the site offers is the Rs 99 a month pack for unlimited downloads, the subscription for which is charged to the customer's monthly bill. It appears that the service is only available for post-paid subscribers, since we tried subscribing through a pre-paid Photon connection, but were unable to do so. Why not offer single downloads, and extend the music store to Pre-paid subscribers? It is also hard to understand why Tata Photon charges customers for browsing the site and for data consumption while downloading the products, when it is an operator branded service. Perhaps it is the case that while Hungama gets a share of the subscription revenue, Tata Teleservices monetizes bandwidth consumption. We've asked Hungama for a clarification, and will update. Remember that the subscription fee for Hungama.com's unlimited music service is Rs 99, with content DRM protected. Earlier this month, Hungama partnered with music player company TuneWiki to offer music downloads with embedded lyrics through an in-app link. We found that it offers operator billing for the same, as well, through Premium SMS. Related: - Hungama & TuneWiki Launch Co-branded App; Would You Pay For It? - Uninor Launches ‘Unlimited Music’ Service
