Verizon music comes with a catch

People buying into Verizon's new music service for mobile phones will find they will no longer be able to play MP3 files on those phones.

"The company's new song download service, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is being built around Microsoft's digital-media technology. As part of that service, Verizon decided to eliminate the phones' previous ability to play MP3 files, hoping to keep the phones' music features simple, a company spokesman said...

"We don't view this as restricting functionality," said Jesse Money, Verizon's director of consumer multimedia services. "We wanted one music player on the phone with a simple and consistent look and feel throughout the player. If we were to leave (the MP3 support intact), then there would be two players with different experiences.""

Out goes the old, open MP3, in comes the new, proprietary, locked-up Microsoft format.