Leap Wireless International/Cricket Communications today announced it has surpassed the 500,000 customer mark for its Muve Music service in less than a year.

Muve Music customers demonstrate heavier usage of the service than any other mobile music offering, the company contends. On a monthly basis, Muve Music customers listen to music on their phone about 40 hours and download about 300 songs over the 3G network.

“We’re very pleased with Muve Music’s first-year results” said Doug Hutcheson, president and CEO, in a press release. “Muve Music has become a leading digital music service in a very short time and Cricket is seeing subscriber growth, ARPU increase and a positive churn trend on the back of this unique new product idea.”

Near the end of last year, Muve Music was integrated into three new Android phones that Cricket launched. Cricket also expanded into the national retail scene with distribution through Best Buy and other retail stores.

Plans start at $55/month for unlimited music and nationwide talk, text and web. In August, rival prepaid carrier MetroPCS Communications announced an unlimited mobile music service with Rhapsody that started at $60 per month.

Citing a leading music tracking service, Cricket says that in the month of December, Muve Music’s usage represented more than 90 percent of all tethered streams for the top 300 songs tracked in the mobile applications category, which includes services such as Rhapsody, Spotify and MOG.

Last week, Leap estimated that it added 175,000 customers during the fourth quarter and said uptake of its smartphones and Muve Music devices as a percent of total sales was about 60 percent in December.