Yeah yeah, so Verizon has released the LG VX8500 Chocolate phone. It sure is purty, begging to be compared to the iPod what with a gosh-darn click-wheel. But coordinated with the launch of the Chocolate, Verizon Wireless has decided to do away with the $15 monthly fee for it's V-Cast Music service. Now that's news (at least to those in the satellite radio industry).

It's not earth shattering news, because well, you still need to pay $2 per song. Each song can be downloaded twice (oh joy) - once to your phone, and once off the Internet. So they're not really giving away the farm either.

And the interface sucks. Badly. So "discovery" of music isn't really there (you really need to know what you want before you look for it), but hey - this is still a technology in its infancy.

So why post about it? Because this is The Competition to satellite radio. Maybe not right now, but it will be.

[Yahoo News via Digg]