Digital Notes: Samsung Music Hub Takes on Just About Everyone

Ben Sisario
New York Times Media Decoder

"Using technology from mSpot — a streaming start-up that Samsung bought earlier this month — and in partnership with another music company, 7digital, Music Hub will offer 19 million songs for download, which can be stored free in cloud lockers."

In the digital music market, there are download stores, Internet radio players, streaming services, online lockers and services tied to mobile devices. The only way for a company to distinguish itself, it would seem, would be to combine as many of these features as possible into a single product.

That is what Samsung is trying with a revamped version of its Music Hub, which the company mentioned when introducing a new phone several weeks ago and announced in detail on Tuesday. Ostensibly it competes against Apple’s iTunes store, Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon — as well as Rhapsody, Muve Music, BBM Music and dozens of others — all at once, a tall order for any company.

Using technology from mSpot — a streaming start-up that Samsung bought earlier this month — and in partnership with another music company, 7digital, Music Hub will offer 19 million songs for download, which can be stored free in cloud lockers. For a monthly fee, users may also stream any song in the catalog (like Spotify); upload a personal library of songs to the cloud, for use anywhere (like Apple’s iTunes Match); and create customized radio streams (like Pandora and many others).

So far, Music Hub is available only in Europe on Samsung’s new Galaxy S III phone; subscriptions go for up to about $16 a month. But the service is expected to be introduced around the world later this year.

Kickstarting Seven Figures: Amanda Palmer, an enthusiastically do-it-yourself musician, surpassed $1 million on Tuesday for her most recent Kickstarter campaign. That is by far the biggest take for any music project on Kickstarter, and she still has two days left to make more.

May 29th, 2012
New York Times Media Decoder