Research In Motion today announced a BlackBerry Messenger music sharing service. Called BBM Music, it will allow “users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends.” Millions of songs will be available from the catalogs of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI.
“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,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “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.”
BBM Music will offer features such as:
- Creating and sharing a personal music profile with up to 50 favourite songs
- Growing your music collection using the songs of your BBM Music friends
- Creating multiple playlists using your profile’s music and those of your friends
- Listening and commenting on your friends’ songs and playlists
- Seeing a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community
- Offline listening by saving music onto your smartphone when there is no wireless coverage
BBM Music will launch “later this year” and will cost US$4.99 per month. It will be offered in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States. A closed beta pilot is now underway in Canada, the US and the UK.