Samsung launches Music Hub service

Computerworld - Samsung Tuesday unveiled a mobile music service, called Music Hub, that will initially run on its Galaxy S III smartphone that is sold by all the major U.S. carriers.

Samsung last quarter sold twice as many smartphones globally as rival Apple, according to IDC, and continues to add new tablets to its product lines.

Samsung now appears ready to take on Spotify and other popular music services.

The Music Hub service is based on technology Samsung gained in its recent acquisition of mSpot.

Users can access the Music Hub service through the Samsung App Store or Google Play.

Samsung said the service is now available for Galaxy S III smartphones sold by AT&T and US Cellular. The company did not say when Music Hub will be available for Galaxy S III phones sold by Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile USA.

Samsung offered instructions for accessing Music Hub on a special Web site.

The music Music Hub service includes music storage capacity, a streaming music catalog to sample music for purchase and a personal radio service similar to Pandora and others.

The company is offering a free 30-day trial for the $9.99 a month service.

A free version of Music Hub will provide samples of songs available for purchase and storage of music in the cloud.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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