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Blackberry Kills BBM Music Service

April 4, 2013

By Gilbert Falso :: 6:38 AM

BlackBerry discontinues dwindling music service.BlackBerry announced yesterday, in an e-mail to subscribers, that its BBM Music Service would be shuttered, less than two years after it launched with much fanfare.

The company will close the music service on June 2nd, and will provide subscribers with a free 30-day trial of the Rdio music streaming service.

Originally launched as a music discovery service, BBM Music allowed users to share up to 50 songs with friends, and provided free music to users who encouraged their friends to sign up for the $5 monthly service. What BlackBerry didn’t count on, however, was the massive dropoff in BBM users that occurred after the Music service launched.

With their once captive audience fleeing to Android and iPhone handsets, the BBM Music service lost subscribers quickly, and with fewer subscribers to share songs, the service never took off as the company had imagined.

Below is the e-mail that subscribers received:

BBMT Music service will be discontinued as of June 2, 2013. For paying customers, April is the last month that you will be billed. In May, as your BBM contacts stop using the service, songs in your playlists will begin to turn grey and will no longer be available.

Though BBM Music is going away, you can still listen to great music on your BlackBerry. We’re giving you a 30-day pass to Rdio, which gives you unlimited, on-demand access to more than 18 million songs, including the latest hits and classic albums.