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Getting the BlackBerry music stores straight

Joe — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:42:29 +0000

As Bla1ze shared last week, RIM has finally made the BlackBerry Music Store available to all customers via App World. Well, that is, customers in Australia and Canada. Those of us in the US, UK, and other countries across the globe don’t have quite the same experience. You see, RIM has been flirting with a pair of music services, so there’s a difference in experience between them. That can create confusion — and it gets compounded when combined with the PlayBook. Here’s a quick rundown of the issues and what we can expect from them.

7Digital music store

It seems that RIM has plans for the dDigital music store to eventually power all iterations of the BlackBerry Music Store. That works out well enough. Blackberry and 7digital have long worked together, and their large selection makes them as good a choice as any for primary music supplier.

Last year we learned that the 7digital music store would come pre-installed on the Blackberry PlayBook, branded as the BlackBerry Music Store. That works well for Australian and Canadian customers, since the new BlackBerry Music Store is also powered by 7digital. That creates a level of continuity between the devices. That they have the same icon helps even more.

Yet confusion strikes when we get to US customers.

Amazon MP3 store

Blackberry 7 users have actually had the BlackBerry Music Store since they got their devices. Other users have been able to download it through the Beta Zone. US customers, however, have not been getting the 7digital experience. Instead their version of the BlackBerry Music Store actually hooks up to the Amazon MP3 store. While that’s not bad in itself, it creates a few issues.

See, while they’re powered by different systems, the BlackBerry Music Store logo remains consistent between PlayBook and BlackBerry 7 devices. Users might become confused when they try to access their BlackBerry Music Songs on their PlayBook and don’t find them. That’s because the two stores are not compatible. Eventually users will realize that if their BlackBerry Music Store is powered by Amazon, that they need to use the Amazon MP3 app on the PlayBook.

The issue, then, is consistency. It’s what RIM needs right now.

Bringing them together

There’s nothing at all wrong with the Amazon MP3 store. In fact, their storage locker can help users save hard drive space. The issue here is compatibility. RIM is using the same logo for two essentially different apps. It’s understandable why; they want to create a Blackberry Music Store brand, and it will likely never be powered by internal software. It will eventually all be 7digital. But in the meantime they’re using Amazon rather than nothing.

That’s probably a good bet in terms of sales, but it doesn’t make it very convenient for non-Australian and non-Canadian customers. Something tells me, though, that they’ll get this all worked out in the next couple of months. After all, if we’re to believe new CEO Thorsten Heins, it’s all about execution.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Getting the BlackBerry music stores straight

BBM Music now available from App World

Joe — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:02:33 +0000

After a successful beta testing stage, it’s time for BBM Music to shine. Today RIM announced that their music download and sharing service is available to all BlackBerry users. We first heard about BBM Music in late August, and it sounded like a new twist on smartphone music. In fact, I think it brings back an element of music that went missing when it moved to a primarily digital format. For more on this, you can read my guest post on The Telecom Blog. For a rehash of what you’ll get with BBM Music, read on.

The basic subscription costs $5 per month ($6 per month in Australia) and allows users to download 50 songs from the BBM Music library. Those songs are yours, for use only on your BlackBerry smartphone or PlayBook, as long as you maintain your BBM Music subscription. That might sound limiting, since there are many subscription music services that cost $10 per month and provide millions of tracks. BBM Music’s charm is in its sharing.

BBM Music is essentially a social network. When your BBM contacts download BBM Music, you have access to their 50 songs and they have access to yours. Additionally, you can add contacts on BBM Music, which will further expand your library. At the same time, you do not have to add those contacts to your BBM contact list. This makes BBM Music more of a self-contained service that uses BBM as a proxy. The more contacts on your list, the more songs you can access. It creates a social element that doesn’t exist on any other subscription music service, except Spotify.

To get people started, RIM is offering a two-month free trial subscription (one month in Australia). After this trial expires users can either subscribe at $5 per month, or they can take advantage of a free subscription. This does not include full tracks, but instead provides 30-second song previews. Again, this is just another promotional tool, since it’s designed to entice people into buying the full subscription.

The BBM Music app is free. You can download it now from App World. That allows you to start your two-month free trial, so you can check out all the ins and outs. Make sure to tell all your friends, since this service is dependent on a large user base. You can read more at Inside BlackBerry.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BBM Music now available from App World

The skinny on BBM Music

Joe — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:30:23 +0000

It took about a week to go from rumor to reality. Late last week we heard the first strong rumblings of RIM’s music offering, BBM Music. On Monday I laid out the gist, and decided that RIM needed an expert marketing plan to sell this. It sounded like a good idea, but it runs counter to the offers we’re used to seeing. That is, even though most people don’t take advantage of unlimited music plans, they love the idea of having access to unlimited music. How, then, does RIM sell a service that allows users access to only 50 songs? We’re about to find out. They officially announced the service this week and have already started a closed beta. Here’s what you can expect.

In terms of how it will work, the rumors were basically spot on. You pay $5 per month and get access to 50 songs. You can play these only on your BlackBerry smartphone or PlayBook, though you can download them to listen offline. (In fact, this is probably preferred.) What opens up this service is your BBM contact list. If one of your friends signs up, you have access to her 50 songs as well. That turns it into something of a music social network for BlackBerry users. As you can see in the screenshot to the right, that’s exactly what RIM is going for here.

The product itself, as mentioned, is in closed beta. I’ll hopefully have a review of that next week. But for now it’s probably best to stay away from that. Even in the private beta it will be tough to gauge, because it won’t be open to entire contact lists. And really, that’s the most important part.

The social networking aspect of it is a nice little touch. Again, it’s going to be tough to gauge the real effects until we get a widespread rollout — even in the beta we won’t get the full experience. But if you can see the people your friends start sharing with, that can expand your BBM network, which therefore extends your music network. That is, you can discover new people through music. That’s a favorite past time for many of us, meeting people at concerts and record stores. With the latter falling by the wayside, this is one way to simulate that experience.

In terms of marketing, while there is some leg work to do, the product does in many ways market itself. When you sign up for BBM Music, you want to get as many of your friends on board as well. More friends means more music, after all. The challenge RIM faces is getting the ball rolling. Once they develop that critical mass, it should spread on its own. This is always the most difficult part for any service that requires many users in order to be effective. How do you get those first thousand, hundred thousand, million? Once you get them, they do most of the legwork for you.

I’m definitely stoked at the potential of BBM Music. RIM could have created a storage locker service, in the mold of Google Music, or it could have offered a download center a la iTunes. But it chose to go in a different and certainly riskier direction. The potential is absolutely there. Now all RIM needs is to convince the first X number of users to sign up and get their friends to do the same. Once it hits a certain point, this could blow up.

You can check out a quick BBM Music screenshot library: Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

The skinny on BBM Music

BlackBerry trying something different with BBM Music

Joe — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:37:26 +0000

We’ve seen RIM fall behind the competition before, but this time they couldn’t let it happen. Their biggest smartphone competitors, Android and iPhone, all have music services that now have unique functionality on the smartphone platform. While the iPhone has always had iTunes, Apple recently added a storage locker service, allowing users to access songs from the cloud. Google rolled out a similar project earlier in the year, Google Music, which allows users to upload their entire music libraries to the cloud, with access from anywhere there is a cellular or WiFi signal. It stood to reason that RIM would unveil a similar service, since its mission is to catch up to, and then exceed, the current smartphone leaders. Late last week we got the first details of their effort, BBM Music, and with the weekend I’ve digested what it means for the platform.

On the surface it seems like a bad deal. BBM Music will cost $5 per month, and will give you access to only 50 songs, and you can access those songs only on your BlackBerry devices (i.e., both your smartphone and a PlayBook). Why would anyone pay $5 per month to get a paltry 50 songs when an additional $5 per month can allow users access to 12 million or so songs? After all, both Napster and Rhapsody have BlackBerry apps, and Spotify shouldn’t be far behind. It led me to dismiss the service when I first heard about it. Thankfully, new perspectives can pain the service in a different light.

We’ve seen RIM develop more social features for BBM, and BBM Music is no different. While your $5 might get you only 50 songs for yourself, it also gives you access to your friends’ 50 songs. If you and 20 of your BBM pals all get BBM Music, then, you’ll all have access to your own 50 songs, plus the 1,000 songs your friends have chosen. That way you can open your friends to new music, sending them songs and (presumably) playlists. In a way, it simulates the way we enjoyed music before the digital revolution. You’d buy some albums, your friends would buy some albums, and you’d swap and make mix tapes.

Another point comes from All Things D’s Peter Kafka, who, while generally pooh-poohing the service, comes across with this gem: “…while people say they want unlimited music, they generally end up listening to a very small number of songs, over and over.” This isn’t true for everyone, of course; music nerds will wholeheartedly disagree. But simply saying, “I like everything but country” does not make one a music nerd. Most people enjoy their pop hits and maybe a few more obscure titles, and they enjoy them often. The true eclectics are in the minority, and RIM has seemingly identified this imbalance. The only issue is that people still love the unlimited music marketing. They’ll have to overcome that stigma to get people to understand the reality of their product.

It appears that RIM has a little more legwork to do before BBM Music launches. They have a decent premise. It’s an old school way of enjoying music, and it’s cheaper than the unlimited services. The problem now is showing people why their 50 songs is 1) adequate and 2) more than 50 songs when you factor in the sharing feature. They need to get creative, perhaps invoking nostalgia and talking about mix tapes and trading CDs. If they can pull off the marketing campaign successfully, I can see BBM Music catching on. Without the marketing, though, it just looks like an inferior service.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BlackBerry trying something different with BBM Music

Cloud Player gives BlackBerry users streaming music

Joe — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:30:09 +0000

The new trend in smartphones appears to be streaming music service. This goes beyond the traditional ones, such as Pandora and Slacker. Instead, the trend involves streaming music from your own music library. Amazon started by offering its MP3 upload service, and Google followed with Google Music. Apple, too, has a storage locker option for iPhone users. It’s absolutely certain that RIM will create its own service, or acquire another one. In the meantime, BlackBerry users who want to stream their own music libraries can check out Cloud Player to get a little taste of the action.

The service is pretty straight forward, meaning you can get to the fun part pretty quickly. First you’ll go to cloudplayer.me and create an account. That’s a quick one-step process, where you’ll enter your email and make a password. After that you’ll be prompted to download the desktop app, which is available for both PC and Mac. Open up the app, and you can upload music from any folder on your computer.

To play your library over the air on your BlackBerry, just head to App World and download the Cloud Player app. That should about take care of it. Once our songs upload you can start playing them on your BlackBerry, via either WiFi or your regular 3G connection. According to CrackBerry there will be future updates, too, including social features and a PlayBook versions. I’m confident that RIM will come in with a superior native offering, but until then Cloud Player can tide you over.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Cloud Player gives BlackBerry users streaming music

RIM working on its own BlackBerry music service

Joe — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:30:04 +0000

Prior to a few months ago, if you wanted to upload your music to the cloud you had precious few options. With the Dropbox app you could stream MP3 files from the cloud, but I found the interface clunky and ultimately unusable. Then came Amazon with its cloud music service, adn many followed in kind. Google has Google Music, which allows you to upload your entire music library and stream it through the cloud to your Android device (or any PC where you have installed Google Music). Apple is debuting iCloud, which is a similar service. Where does this leave the BlackBerry. In the wind, it would seem. But perhaps not for long. According to a tip sent to BlackBerry Sync, we could see RIM release an interesting music service sometime soon.

The details are scant right now, but we do know that the service, as you might expect, links with BBM. In fact, as the screenshot suggests, it could be called BBM Music. But instead of uploading your music to the cloud and then streaming it, RIM has something different in mind. The service is based on the oldest tradition in music: sharing. You’ll be able to share your albums and playlists with your friends via BBM. Now that’s a novel concept.

There are sure to be hitches in the service, specifically when it comes to the record companies. They don’t like the whole sharing thing. They want each person to buy their own music, so I’m not sure how RIM plans to work this. If done right, though, it could be another reason to pick up a new BlackBerry. I always want to share music with friends, but it seems that every conceivable means of sharing digital music is illegal.

It’s interesting, and encouraging, to see RIM walking down this path. If you follow the drama that is RIM, you certainly read the exposé that BGR published this week. To think that the company went from “no MP3 players” to a music sharing service shows how far it has come from its rigid old ways. To be sure, those rigid ways have held them back, but if they shed them I think that their overall product is good enough to survive in this market.

Oh, and not to get you too too excited, because the details are thin here, too, but N4BB is reporting that RIM is working on an Apple TV type device. I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but it’s something to look out for as we get into the later months of the year.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

RIM working on its own BlackBerry music service

Slacker Radio adds on-demand premium service

Joe — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:30:37 +0000

For the past few years I’ve searched for the perfect music solution on my BlackBerry. Of course, I could just get a big SD card and load my own music onto it. But there’s something about a cellular connection that, to me, begs for discovery. I want to take full advantage of this unlimited data plan, and so I want to stream music I might not listen to otherwise. One prominent streaming option has been Slacker. While I’m a faithful Pandora user, I’ve always found Slacker to be a perfectly fine competitor. They might have swayed my loyalties with their latest offer, which includes unlimited on-demand streaming. That is, I can listen to songs whenever my heart desires.

The on-demand streaming makes Slacker an instant competitor to services such as Napster and Rhapsody. In fact, it gives them a leg up, because they have a far better streaming radio interface than those services. I dream it up like this: I’m streaming music on one of my custom Slacker stations, and I come across an artist I’ve never heard before. I then create a playlist for that artist, right from the radio station screen. Then I listen to an album or collection of songs, fall in love, and have a new favorite band.

Best of all, you can cache stations or songs for offline play. This was a feature of Slacker Plus, but it was obviously only for music from their stations. With Premium you can listen to your favorite songs even if you don’t have a connection. Again, that makes it somewhat like Napster and Rhapsody. And, again, that makes it better because of the already awesome streaming feature.

When it comes to streaming music on your BlackBerry, there are plenty of free options. If you choose to pay for a service, then, it had better bring some serious features to the table. Slacker, it appears, has done just that. It had a great service, one that I’d recommend to any BlackBerry user. Now they’ve added a worthy premium tier. I’ll recommend that, too. You can download the basic Slacker app for free from App World. From there you can sign up for the premium account.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Slacker Radio adds on-demand premium service

Borrow audiobooks from your library with OverDrive Media Console

Joe — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:46:59 +0000

It wasn’t too long ago that I first heard over OverDrive, a service that allows you to borrow electronic materials from your local library. This is an idea that always made sense. We have these e-readers and digital devices, and while they’re not the same as physical books, they provide the same content. In the BBGeeks Store today I saw an app that made me giddy: the OverDrive Media Console. As you might expect, this allows you to take advantage of public library audiobooks on your BlackBerry.

All you need for this app is a library card — and, of course, a public library that works with OverDrive to provide digital materials. I’m not sure how the public library system works in other states, but I know that in New Jersey one local card gets you access to an entire county’s worth of library materials. That makes for a potentially wider selection.

From the app you can browse audiobooks. Once you’ve entered your card information you can check out an audiobook and download it right to your BlackBerry. Then you can play it for the duration of your lending period. I’m a pretty big fan of this, because it eliminates the one thing that costs me with public libraries: late fees. Which reminds me, I have a few books to return…

You can get more information about OverDrive at their website. Just type your ZIP code into the box on the main page, and you’ll get a listing of libraries in our area that work with OverDrive.

The app is free. You can get the OverDrive Media Console right from the BBGeeks Store.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Borrow audiobooks from your library with OverDrive Media Console

Amazon adds music store to BlackBerry

Joe — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:32:49 +0000

If you’ve been waiting for RIM to release its own iTunes-like music store, today you’ll be satisfied. They have released an Amazon MP3 store app in the Test Center, which will open up Amazon’s 14 million tracks for your browsing, listening, and downloading needs. It’s the same way that Android has combatted the seamless iTunes integration on the iPhone. And, best of all, Amazon has far looser DRM restrictions than iTunes, so you’ll be able to do a bit more with the music you download on your BlackBerry.

You’ll need to have an Amazon.com account, or else you’ll need to set one up on your computer before you can access this app. After that you’re easy rolling. Since the app is linked to your account you can purchase with the utmost impulse. That can be bad for those who can’t control themselves — and when it comes to music I rank among them — but the ease is a big selling point of this. No one wants to go through multiple steps before downloading music. Music is, by its nature, impulsive.

Amazon MP3, of course, isn’t the only music store available on the BlackBerry. We’ve previously mentioned the Tumbplay music store, which now contains around 9 million songs. The best part of that service is that it offers an unlimited subscription service. There is no such service available for Amazon MP3, so combined they create quite an offering. As much as I do enjoy Thumbplay, I kinda wish that Amazon would come out with a subscription service of its own. Having those 14 million songs available at all times would be pretty sweet.

Even if you’re not a fan of the 99 cents per track scheme that has become so common in music sales, Amazon does have alternatives. There is a daily free song of the day, plus there are $5 album deals — and if you’re a fan of old timey music there is plenty to be found there. RIM has also added its own touch to the app by allowing you to share your music preferences with friends using BBM, email, SMS< Social Feeds, Facebook, and other social platforms. You know, so you can cram your pristine musical tastes down your friends' throats.

The Amazon MP3 app itself is free, and you can get it in the Test Center. You’ll need OS 5.0 and, sorry, this is for US users only right now.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Amazon adds music store to BlackBerry

Verizon FiOS brings on-demand to your BlackBerry Storm

Joe — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:31:39 +0000

Pretty soon this kind of service will be available on a much wider basis. But for now it’s available just to Verizon FiOS customers who own certain handsets. Thankfully, one of them is the BlackBerry Storm 2. On-demand video has been all the craze in cable TV lately, and now it’s on your BlackBerry smartphone. Verizon has released its FiOS on Demand app, and it allows you to buy or rent moves from its Flex View library. This isn’t a perfect offering for many reasons, and I can understand why many FiOS customers won’t be interested in this. But it’s certainly a sign of what’s to come.

The application works as you might expect. You can browse through Verizon’s catalog of Flex View movies, and then you can download them right to your BlackBerry. There are also options that will make it available on up to four devices, plus your regular TV. You can purchase these Flex View movies from any devices, including your TV, and have them available on all other devices.

That sounds great, but there are limitations that make this less appealing. First, you must be a Verizon FiOS subscriber. That doesn’t cover a huge portion of the population. Beyond that, you have to be in a Flex View market, which even further reduces the pool. Finally, you need a BlackBerry Storm 2, which, again, reduces the number of eligible viewers. The other compatible devices are available through, you guessed it, Verizon Wireless.

Still, this application is a great idea. Eventually it won’t just be Verizon customers in a certain market with a certain handset who will be able to watch on-demand movies right on their smartphones. Whether a third party offers the service or all the other carriers copy Verizon, we’ll all soon have this type of on-demand service that spans multiple devices.

You can get the FiOS on Demand app for free at App World. More information is available at Verizon’s Flex View website.

Via BerryReview.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Verizon FiOS brings on-demand to your BlackBerry Storm