It would be slightly more accurate to call it a competitor for the iTunes Store for people who want to listen to music on their mobile phones, but even that's a stretch.

The MusicStation model is to provide access to as many tracks as you like from an extensive catalogue, but only while you keep paying the weekly subscription of just under two pounds (say $US3.88 or $A5) - roughly the price of one CD per month. Apple's iTunes Store sells music with a perpetual licence, so you pay once and keep listening.

This is more akin to the model used by Napster (as The Guardian concedes well into its article) or Sanity's announced (but yet to materialise) subscription service for the Australian market, but with a Java or Symbian client running on mobile phones.

The idea is to get operators onside so they put the MusicStation client software on the phones they sell, so the service becomes part of the 'default experience'.