Vodafone has sought to spoil the imminent launch of Apple’s iPhone in Britain by offering Vodafone subscribers a vast catalogue of music for less than £2 a week.

MusicStation, which provides access to more than a million music tracks for a flat £1.99 a week, is to be available on most Vodafone handsets from November.

Vodafone’s tie-up with the service, which has deals with all the big record companies, as well as several independent labels, sets the scene for a vicious Christmas battle for mobile music customers.

The announcement by the mobile operator, which has 17.4 million UK users, came days ahead of an expected announcement from Apple about its chosen British operator for the iPhone.

Vodafone appears to have lost that deal to O2 and had risked entering the critical Christmas trading period as legions of customers switched to its rival.

Vodafone’s deal with MusicStation is also exclusive to it among UK mobile operators and will be available only to its subscribers.

Yesterday Apple announced that it had sold a million iPhones in the United States, two weeks ahead of schedule.

However, the device lost some of its shine last week after Apple’s shock decision to cut the US price of the iPhone by $200 to $399 (£196).

The cut, only 68 days after its launch, was unprecedented for an Apple product in its speed and fuelled fears that the product was not living up to expectations.

Although the MusicStation brand lacks the resonance of Apple’s name, many analysts see it as a serious contender in the mobile music market.

As well as paying only a low, flat-rate fee, MusicStation users can download tracks wherever they are, rather than waiting until they are at their computer.

Subscribers can also use more than one handset; they can upgrade to a new model and retain access to music they have downloaded.

Users of the MusicStation service, which is compatible with about 80 per cent of Vodafone handsets, will also not be required to pay the expected few hundred pounds for the Apple device.

However, there are several potential drawbacks to the service, which has been four years in the making.

Users will not be able to download their own music collections and if they unsubscribe they immediately lose access to the music they have downloaded.

Nick Lane, of Direct2Consult, said: “It is questionable whether people want to effectively rent their music rather than own it.”

He also doubted Vodafone and MusicStation’s ability to persuade users to spend £103 a year on music on their mobiles.

The average spend on mobile music is about £13 a year per subscriber, he said.

MusicStation is the creation of Omnifone, a company founded by a group of British entrepreneurs.

As well as signing up Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner, it will offer access to tracks from several independent labels.

It has deals in place with 30 mobile operators worldwide, with the software expected to be in 100 million mobile phones within 12 months.

Rob Lewis, the chief executive of Omnifone, said that he was confident that the service presented a serious threat to Apple. “The iPhone is an interesting device, but what we are offering is an unlimited, unrestricted direct-to-phone service,” he said.

British mobile operators have fought a fierce battle for the right to market the iPhone - a touch-screen device that incorporates internet access, Bluetooth and applications from Google.

The handset is expected to give the winning network a critical tool in gaining and retaining customers in one of the world’s most competitive mobile markets.

It is understood that Apple has signed up its chosen partners. Orange is thought to have won in France.

In Germany the partner is expected to be T-Mobile.

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