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Can't wait to get home to listen to or purchase that song you heard on the radio this morning, but don't have access to a radio, CD store, and computer?

If so, AT&T Wireless has got a new service, the mMode Music Store, that can help. Built with Loudeye and Microsoft, the store lets you sample and purchase music from a mobile handset for the first time in the United States.

There are about 750,000 songs in Windows Media format in the store's database. When you buy a track for 99 cents (or an entire album for around $9.99) from a mobile phone or smartphone, it will then be available for download from your desktop computer.

According AT&T Wireless mMode VP Sam Hall, "Now, consumers no longer have to scribble down the names of songs they've discovered and wait until they get home to download them onto their computers. The convenience and immediacy of our mobile digital music store lets users remotely explore and buy digital music while on the move."

You don't have to wait until you get home to listen to a song, however. 30-second samples of each track can be heard on supported smartphones. These mobile handsets include Nokia's 6620, 3650, 3620, and N-Gage, plus the Motorola MPx200.

AT&T also tied the mMode Music Store to its popular Music ID service. So when customers receive a text message with the name and artist of a song they've discovered while mobile, they can now click on a link to buy that song.

Music & Phones
Nokia's announced partnership with Loudeye this summer to create a music download service and player for its mobile phones and smartphones. Motorola inked a similar deal with Apple only a month earlier.

Apple will deliver a version of its iTunes music player for Motorola phones next year, allowing consumers to sync audio files from their PCs for playing on their Motorola handsets. Nokia gave no timetable for the arrival of its music service.

JupiterResearch expects the budding digital music industry to grow from $270 million this year to $1.7 billion in 2009. Tapping into the world's 1.5 billion mobile phones, by far the largest market for any portable electronic device, should help it grow.