It's time for the New Music Download Store of the Hour! Gather 'round, kiddies, because have we got a doozy for you this time: if you thrilled to the utter incomprehensibility of MyCokeMusic.com and gasped in delight at the immediately obvious sheer unsustainability of BuyMusic.com, how can you help but be enthralled by the latest lamb to the slaughter? Well, brace yourselves, folks, because here we go: witness the mMode Music Store, a new download store just launched by AT&T Wireless.

Yes, AT&T Wireless. The cell phone guys. C'mon, it's no less off-topic than the Coke site. And it even copies the iTunes Music Store slightly better than the rest; practically everyone sells songs for 99 cents, sells albums for $9.99, and lets you search the catalog or browse by genre, but we don't recall any other download store swiping Apple's "Celebrity Playlists" idea until now. And besides, the mMode Music Store has a unique tie-in to AT&T's wireless phone service. Sure, it's unique in its complete and utter uselessness, but unique nonetheless!

Get this: faithful viewer Jared das Über-dork tipped us off to a MacCentral article which describes the new store's integration with AT&T's mobile phones. You remember when Apple and Motorola announced that future Motorola cell phones would contain a mini-iTunes (that could play DRMed iTMS songs) and enough storage space to hold a dozen songs or more? Remember how dorky you thought it was that customers won't be able to buy and download songs on the phone itself, but will have to rely on using a connected computer to buy the songs, download them, and then upload them to the phones? Kinda kills the biggest draw of being able to play a download store's songs on a cell phone in the first place, right? Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

See, here's the thing: reportedly the mMode Music Store is compatible with AT&T Wireless phones, and will allow customers with compatible phones to listen to 30-second previews and even purchase the songs via their cell phones. BUT (and that's a big "but") while you can buy songs on the phone, you can't download them onto the phone wirelessly right then and there-- you have to go back to your Wintel PC to actually download the song you bought. And here's the real kicker: apparently you can't transfer the songs to your phone and listen to them even after you've downloaded them to your PC. In other words, the phone is just for browsing and placing the order; the only fundamental difference between the mMode Music Store and all the other WMA download stores is that, if you like, you can use your cell phone to buy music (which you then have to download and listen to on your PC).

Unless we're missing something pretty significant, here, this whole concept is quite possibly the goofiest and most useless invention since the horse-propelled automobile. To that we can say only one thing: Cool!