Waterloo, Ontario –
Research In Motion (RIM) introduced BBM Music, a Cloud-based BlackBerry music
service with social-networking capabilities.
BBM Music is designed to
let users build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared with
other BBM Music users. According to RIM, the size of the music library
continues to grow as new friends join the community, and each user can select
music from a catalog with millions of songs from Universal Music Group, Sony
Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.
The service is currently
beta testing in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and is slated to be available
later this year for a $4.99/month subscription.
BBM Music users can
build a personal music profile with 50 favorite songs to share with their friends,
and then swap out up to 25 songs each month. They in turn have access to their
friends’ music, so the more friends a user has, the more music they can access.
Access to a friend’s song is for the full song, not just a preview, RIM noted.
Users can create
multiple playlists, comment on friends’ songs and playlists, shuffle an entire
collection, and save music to smartphones for off-line listening.
Omnifone, a Cloud music
service provider, is providing RIM with a back-end solution for the BBM Music service
that provides content management, music hosting and reporting functions based
on Omnifone’s technology, RIM said. This will include compensation reporting
for copyright holders.
