RIM’s BBM Music service to offer 50 songs for $5

RIM might be on its way down, but it certainly isn’t giving up without a fight. But could the company’s new BBM Music service, which will offer 50 songs for $5, help bring the company back from the brink?

Well, a mere glance at previous music services offered by phone companies doesn’t paint a particularly positive picture. Nokia, for instance, even at the height of its popularity failed to make a success of its Comes With Music service.

With this in mind, we’re a little dubious about RIM’s up-and-coming BBM Music service. Sure BBM is popular with kids, but will these kids be up for paying money to listen to music or will they just stick with their torrent-downloaded music, which is completely free?

To be honest we think it’s always going to be the latter. After all, why would you pay for something when you can get it for free?

According to All Things D, BBM Music will arrive as a beta in the US, Canada and the UK in early September, before launching in the three regions later this fall. Subscribers won't be able to export the music to PCs, but they will be able to transfer to the PlayBook tablet. The service will also reportedly contain a social aspect that will let subscribers share songs with other BBM Music subscribers.

‘RIM is aiming to use the subscription music service will rekindle interest in its BlackBerry Messenger functionality,’ reports Apple Insider, ‘which has been one of the standout features for the platform. The company also recently opened up BBM to allow developers to incorporate it into their own BlackBerry apps.’

RIM’s entry into the cloud-music service isn’t going to be an easy one. Apple, Amazon and Google all have similar products coming to market this year as well. Then there’s Microsoft’s Zune, of course, which has over 12 million songs in its database.

It’s certainly a bold move by RIM and we’re glad to see the Canadian manufacturer attempting to keep up with the pack - it’s not known for doing this very often. But whether this service will actually payoff is a big gamble and is heavily reliant on RIM’s new BBM-loving consumer base.

According to reports, RIM now has at least one major record label on board. It’s also reported to be closing in on another two or three deals.

More news as we get it.

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