Samsung launched its Music Hub in the U.S. on Tuesday. The all-in-one music service will have both free and paid versions, and will debut on selected Galaxy S3 models, announced the Korean electronics giant.
As promised by the maker, Music Hub will provide access to millions of songs from the big four labels - Sony, EMI, Universal, and Warner, along with some other independent labels. It will also allow streaming and/or downloading, and even offers 100GB cloud storage.
"We're redefining mobile music by offering a more integrated experience on the handset and lifting the barriers to your music. Our service encompasses all music including your own collection in the cloud, a robust streaming catalog that is seamlessly integrated with a music store, and a personal radio service that caters to all of your music moods and genres," said TJ Kang, senior vice president of the media services team for Samsung. "By providing a free album and trial, we hope Galaxy S III owners will experience for themselves a new, intuitive and easy way to discover music.
While the basic free version will let the user listen to only snippets of tracks, the user has to purchase it from Samsung to listen to the full track. Purchased music will be stored in the cloud that can be accessed from all registered Music Hub devices.
The Premium version, on the other hand, is an all-encompassing music service that comes at a monthly rate of $9.99 and gives access to unlimited streaming from all four major record labels, provides option to "Scan & Match" to store music collection to the cloud. User can also search tracks, create playlists, share songs, and view lyrics and album information. Music Hub also lets the user access to Internet radio stations and lets them create personalized stations.
Music Hub is a combined effort of Samsung and mSpot. Samsung purchased the cloud music service in May.
Samsung is offering a 30-day trial and one free album with the Galaxy S3 smartphone. As of now, only AT&T and U.S. Cellular subscribers will enjoy the Music Hub service. Samsung, however, assured to introduce the service on other networks that include Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The Music Hub service will be launched to more devices in coming days, confirmed the company.
