RIM rolls out BBM Music

Canadian handset vendor RIM has announced that it is rolling out its BBM Music service on a commercial basis following a successful beta trial.

BBM Music is a cloud-based social music service which allows users to discover and share songs from the likes of Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI with BBM contacts. The size of the music library continues to grow as new friends join the community.

The service was launched in Canada, the US and Australia earlier this month and is set to be launched in the UK Tuesday, for a monthly subscription of £4.99.

“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 RIM.

“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 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. The back-end solution helps facilitate the delivery of a full music catalog to BBM Music users and comprehensive compensation reporting for copyright holders.