BBM Music is a social sharing and viral music discovery service, says company
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has unveiled a new cloud-based music service called BBM Music (BlackBerry Messsenger Music).
The company announced the service saying "BBM Music is an easy-to-use cloud-based service that enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends."
RIM said that each user can select music from a catalogue with millions of songs from leading music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.
Among the key features of BBM Music are: sharing; availability of full tracks from friends’ profiles; and offline listening by saving music to smartphones.
Company president Mike Lazaridis said, "More than 45 million customers already love the social communication benefits delivered through BBM and we are thrilled to be extending the experience into a uniquely social and interactive music service."
"We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a ‘full track’ music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level."
Omnifone, a cloud music service provider, is providing RIM with a back-end service for the BBM Music service.
A closed beta trial of the BBM Music service has started today in Canada, the US and the UK.
The BBM Music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the UK and the US.
