T-Mobile Takes The Data Worries Out Of Music Streaming

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) made sure that its latest Un-carrier announcement in Seattle Wednesday evening was full of surprises. Not only did the network unveil its Un-carrier 5.0 services, it also announced its Un-carrier 6.0 services.

T-Mobile has long advertised that its 4G LTE network is the fastest in the nation, and it's now taking more advantage of its record data speeds by giving customers better access to music streaming.

The new Music Freedom function will let customers stream from various music services without affecting their data capacities. Customers will be able to stream music from major services including Pandora, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Slacker, Spotify, Samsung Milk and Beatport music whenever they want, for free.

According to T-Mobile CEO John Legere, 67 percent of users stream music with their smartphones and more than 40 percent say they limit their mobile streaming to avoid going over their data limits and having to pay overage fees.

With Music Freedom, even if customers use their entire data allowances, they will still be able to use high-speed data for music streaming for free. The new service will be available to T-Mobile customers starting Thursday.

Additionally, T-Mobile is asking customers to vote to decide which other streaming services will be added to Music Freedom, which can be done at t-mobile.com/musicfreedom.

Notably, Music Freedom most benefits T-Mobile customers who have plans with data capacities, but customers who already have plans with unlimited data will also have a perk. T-Mobile announced its own music streaming service, Rhapsody UnRadio, which will be $5 a month for standard customers and $4 a month for standard T-Mobile customers, but will be free for T-Mobile customers with unlimited data.

UnRadio includes a catalog of 20 million songs and allows users to choose their own tracks, replay their favorite songs and skip songs as often as they would like. The music service is also free of advertisements.

T-Mobile also announced its Un-carrier 5.0 service, Test Drive, which will allow prospective customers to try out a T-Mobile powered iPhone 5s for seven days. The network also teased Un-carrier 7.0, which will be unveiled later in the summer.

Follow me on Twitter.