Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the launch of BBM Music, a new cloud-based BlackBerry Messenger service for socially connected music fans.

BBM Music is an easy-to-use 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, said a company statement.

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 leading music companies - Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI, it added.

“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,” remarked 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,” he stated. 

Key features of BBM Music include:

*Music made social – BBM Music is a cloud-based, social music service that allows you to share and discover music with your friends, creating a continually evolving music library:
*Listen to Full Tracks - BBM Music subscribers can listen to full tracks from their friends’ profiles – not just previews.
*Offline Listening - Music can be saved to smartphones for offline listening, allowing users to access songs even when they don’t have wireless coverage.
*Topping the Charts – Keep track of how many friends are listening to your tracks.

Omnifone, a premier 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 award winning technology.

As part of RIM’s proprietary service, Omnifone's back-end solution helps facilitate the delivery of a full music catalog to BBM Music users and comprehensive compensation reporting for copyright holders.

“A major component of online music continues to be about community, and the ability to discover new artists and music through word of mouth,” stated Rob Wells, president of Global Digital Business for Universal Music Group.

“BBM Music dynamically and elegantly integrates the excitement of this social music discovery process with a high quality music service, enabling tens of millions of BlackBerry users to experience new music and to share those experiences with their friends virtually anywhere and at anytime,” he observed. 

Thomas Hesse, president, Global Digital Business, US Sales and Corporate Strategy, Sony Music Entertainment, said .

“The combination of a premium music solution and instant messaging will enable viral music discovery and emphasize the social power of digital music. It also offers an effective way of serving younger consumers by integrating music into the fabric of an important hub of their digital activity,” he added.

"A dynamic social music experience is a powerful way for our artists to connect with fans and also for fans to discover music by interacting with each other," said Michael Nash, executive VP, Digital Strategy & Business Development, Warner Music Group.

"Addressing more than 45 million BBM users with a service tailor-made for its mobile community, BBM Music has the opportunity to reach a broad and engaged audience," he opined.

“We are very excited to work with Research In Motion to bring our artists’ music to BBM’s huge and very loyal user base,” said Mark Piibe, executive VP of Global Business Development at EMI Music.

“BBM Music’s unique social discovery experience offers fans a great new way to discover music, share their favorite tracks with their friends and build a stronger connection with the artists they love,” he noted.
 
"The widespread adoption of mobile devices provides the perfect foundation for consuming and sharing music. Brands that want to deliver a unique interactive experience must create services that are mobile, social, and contextual,” said Maribel Lopez Principal at Lopez Research and Constellation Research Group.

A closed beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting today in Canada, the US and the UK. The service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 in Saudi, UAE, Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the US.-TradeArabia News Service