Thursday, August 25, 2011
SHARING STREAMS, EH? The Jobs news stole the spotlight from what would’ve been the week’s biggest tech story, as troubled Canadian BlackBerry maker Research in Motion unveiled its BBM Music service on Thursday. In an interview with BerryReview, Senior Project Manager Nick Patsiopoulos laid out the basics of the service. “BBM Music is a cloud-based social music platform with social front and center,” he explained. “It differentiates itself by being built around social networking instead of having social networking bolted on. It creates a personal profile for users that becomes a personal music profile on steroids, allowing you to select 50 songs that define yourself and your history… These 50 songs become something you identify with and others can experience through you. Every month you can switch up to 25 of those songs, which also extends those songs into your social graph. You can then look at your BBM contacts and listen to their full songs like it is yours. With BBM baked in, you can chat right from the app and comment on your BBM friends profiles or song selections.” BBM Music is priced at $.99 a month. (8/25a)