The BBM™ Music team has been very busy over the last few months launching our BBM-connected social music service in eight different countries around the world. We are excited that BBM Music* is now available for download in Canada, the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Australia – with more regions still to come, so stay tuned! If you haven’t yet tried BBM Music, we are even more excited to let you know that in the month of February 2012, you can download BBM Music FREE for up to 4 months** in Canada or the US, or FREE for up to 6 months** in the UK, Spain & Italy.

Along with the free trials, we’ve added some new features to BBM Music v1.1 that we wanted to share with you.

Invite friends on Facebook & Twitter

We’re making it easier for you to reach out to more friends so that you can grow your music collections together! BBM Music users can now invite their friends on Facebook® and followers on Twitter® to be a BBM Music contact. This option is available from the “Add Friends” tab (along with the existing options: BBM Contacts, Email, BBM Group and PIN). Personally, I can’t stop recommending BBM Music to friends on my social channels – it’s amazing how much you can learn about someone through their song choices, and now I’ve got access to hundreds of songs I would have never discovered on my own.

Show What I’m Listening To with BBM Music v1.1

We know how much you like the “Show What I’m Listening To” feature, and now you can let your BBM friends see what you’re playing on BBM Music by opting to share through Profile Updates. I’m finding that many of my BBM conversations with friends are now initiated by what song selections each one of us has made, and by the memories associated with some of our favorite songs.

Gift Request Feature with BBM Music v1.1

Wish someone would gift you a BBM Music subscription? Well, now we’ve got that covered! You can ask your BBM contacts for a subscription to BBM Music through a ‘Gift Request’***. Here’s how it works:

• If your trial is over, you can access Gift Request by clicking on the grey “Upgrade to BBM Music Premium” banner.
• If your trial isn’t over, you can go to the “Account Information” tab within the Options menu. From there you can select ‘Gift request’, and select a BBM contact from whom to request the subscription and send the gift request.
• Your BBM contact will receive the gift request within a BBM chat, where they can open the request and choose to accept or decline to “Gift” you a subscription.

So if you haven’t already, download BBM Music today and take advantage of the February free trial offer. For more info on how to use BBM Music – whether it’s adding a friend, sharing a playlist or finding more tracks – check out this BBM Music how to video. Once you’ve downloaded BBM Music, don’t forget to let us know what you think!

* BlackBerry ID and data service required. Monthly subscription required for full track access. Songs must be available in BBM Music catalog in user’s home country. Users can have up to 50 songs in their profile and change up to 25 songs per month. Friends must be using BBM Music and have a monthly subscription for you to access their full tracks. Limit of 50 songs per friend. Accessing the service while roaming may incur additional data charges. When traveling outside of home country, only songs available in user’s home country BBM Music catalog are accessible. Songs may be cached to play off-network. Storage card and sufficient available memory required for caching. Songs will only play within the BBM Music app. When users change songs in their profile, deleted songs, included cached copies on their device, are no longer accessible. See http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal for complete details and restrictions. Terms subject to change.

** New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly paid subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic for complete details and restrictions.

*** Can only request gift from existing BBM contacts. Gift is reoccurring monthly subscription which continues until cancelled by gift giver.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

With the release of BBM™ Music you can now listen to your favorite songs, share music with your BBM friends and even receive recommendations on new music you might be interested in right on your BlackBerry® smartphone¹. The best part of all is you can try BBM Music for free².! The length of the free trial will vary by carrier – so, check with your carrier for details!

As of today, if you use a BlackBerry® 7 smartphone with data service provided by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon, an icon for the BBM Music application will now appear on your smartphone. If you are interested in installing the app from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront in order to start listening to and sharing music with your BBM friends who also have the app , open the Media folder on your smartphone and select the BBM Music icon. If you cannot see the icon for BBM Music, your BlackBerry smartphone may be associated with a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. If this is the case, please contact your BlackBerry administrator for assistance with installing the BBM Music app. If you do not have a BlackBerry administrator, follow the instructions below to scan the QR code for the BBM Music app.

Note: AT&T customers using BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 will also have this icon appear on BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 and 9700 smartphones as well as the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9300 smartphone. The icon will appear on your home screen or in the Downloads folder on your BlackBerry smartphone. Selecting this icon will open BlackBerry App World which will allow you to download and install the BBM Music app.
For those using a different wireless service provider or if the icon for BBM Music cannot be found on your BlackBerry smartphone, open BlackBerry App World and search for BBM Music, or scan the QR code below while browsing BlackBerry App World (Menu key > Scan A Barcode).

After installing BBM Music, check out the post, Getting Started with BBM Music over at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog to learn more about BBM Music such as the minimum requirements your smartphone needs to meet in order to install the app, subscription fees as well how to share music with BBM friends and other features such as being able to listen to music when you don’t have a wireless network connection.

1. BlackBerry ID and data service required. Monthly subscription required for full track access. Songs must be available in BBM Music catalog in user’s home country. Users can have up to 50 songs in their profile and change up to 25 songs per month. Friends must be using BBM Music and have a monthly subscription for you to access their full tracks. Limit of 50 songs per friend. Accessing the service while roaming may incur additional data charges. When traveling outside of home country, only songs available in user’s home country BBM Music catalog are accessible. Songs may be cached to play off-network. Storage card and sufficient available memory required for caching. Songs will only play within the BBM Music app. When users change songs in their profile, deleted songs, included cached copies on their device, are no longer accessible. See http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal for complete details and restrictions. Terms subject to change.
2. New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly paid subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal for complete details and restrictions.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Inside BlackBerry® Blog readers! We’ve got a new post for you from Sonia, announcing yet another great app for #TeamBlackBerry…read on for more! – Ed.

The BBM™ Music app is finally here, and will be available for downloading within the next 24 hours in Canada, the United States and Australia (more regions will be launching shortly, so stay tuned).

First, let’s clarify one misconception: with a BBM Music Premium subscription, you can access far more than 50 songs. To start your BBM Music profile, you can choose up to 50 songs from the millions in our catalog. But, that’s just the beginning! Add more music to your library by adding friends and get access to your BBM friends’ music profile songs. The more BBM friends with BBM Music Premium subscriptions you have, the more songs you can share! And the sharing goes both ways. Your BBM friends with BBM Music Premium subscriptions will have access to your profile music too, and can access it anytime.

So, let’s say you have 10 BBM friends with BBM Music subscriptions, and they each have 50 songs in their music profiles. From those friends alone, plus the 50 songs you downloaded to start your profile, you could have 550 songs in no time, right on your BlackBerry® smartphone!

Now, how about a quick refresh on the beta release: BBM Music is a BBM-connected social music service that allows BBM and BlackBerry smartphone users to discover, play and grow their music collections together. In other words, BBM Music helps you connect with your friends around music on a whole new level.

Turn your friend list into a playlist

With BBM Music, you can grow and keep your music selection fresh by swapping songs every month and by inviting friends to gain access to your music. And remember, when you invite friends to BBM Music, you get access to their musical playlist (which means you get access to more songs); you can build new playlists that include your songs and their songs, you can comment on your friends’ music and you can start a chat with any of your BBM friends from within the BBM Music app in real time. All of this music activity is automatically posted to the homescreen timeline so that you can keep up with friends without missing a beat (literally)!

What’s more, you can cache your BBM music (or save your music to your microSD card) for easy offline listening. Choose the full track experience via the Premium Subscription version or the Free Subscription version – here’s what those options include:

• PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION: The Premium ‘full track’ BBM Music experience is available for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD ($4.99 CDN and $5.99 AUD). The Premium version will feature a free Premium trial offer.
• Free Premium trial offer*: With the free Premium trial offer, you can use all the features of a Premium subscription for a limited time. Get up to 2 months* free in US and Canada, and one month free in Australia.
• FREE SUBSCRIPTION: There will also be a Free subscription to the service that delivers the same social experience as the Premium subscription, but with 30 second song previews versus full song tracks. After your Free Premium trial offer period ends, you can opt to continue using BBM Music without a paid subscription by using this Free subscription. You can upgrade from a Free subscription to a Premium subscription at any time.

What BBM Music Beta users like most

We’ve received tons of great feedback and suggestions from our beta participants – 8 out of 10 said they would recommend this service to a friend. Sharing songs with others is one of the most popular features, as is ease of use. Here’s what some of BBM Music users have to say:

“This app is by far the best music app out there… I love the way we can share music with friends!”

“I like the feature of sharing your music with your friends.”

Based on feedback from Beta users we have added a “stop” button alongside the “pause” button, enhanced music discovery by presenting sorting options in all music and contacts screens and improved conversation around music by adding an external notification icon when you receive a comment about your BBM Music. We thank you for your feedback!

Download BBM Music today

I have admittedly become addicted to the beta version of BBM Music, and I’m very excited for this to officially launch. I’ve quickly amassed well over 1,800 songs (a combination of my own song downloads and my friends’), and I have hours’ worth of music that I’ve sorted into Indie, Jazz and Chill playlists, among others. Even my kids have their own playlists (which were handy on the beach this summer), and I’m constantly checking in for new music and updates from BBM friends. In short, I think you’re going to like it.

Download BBM Music today, and stay tuned for more blog posts on BBM Music as the service continues to evolve and becomes available in more regions.

*New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See us.blackberry.com/legal/bbmmusic.jsp for complete details and restrictions.

It is my extreme pleasure to give you an inside look at the BBM™ Music app Research In Motion (RIM) announced today. Hot on the heels of our BBM 6 launch in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, BBM Music is expected to be available later this year for a monthly subscription fee of $4.99 USD, plus tax (to sign up to get more details later on availability and free trial in your country, please visit www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic).

BBM Music is a BBM-connected social music service that allows BlackBerry® smartphone users to share and discover music through your BBM Music friends (note: users must also have BBM 6 installed). Once you have created a BBM Music sharing friendship with a BBM contact, you can make use of all that BBM Music has to offer (like other BBM-connected apps, BBM Music was built using the same BBM SDKs extended to the BlackBerry developer community. To see a list of other great BBM-connected apps, check out our BBM 6: Apps Made Social post).

BBM Music has been designed to allow you to:

• Build your music profile from a Catalog of millions of tracks (with more to be added over the coming weeks)
• Invite friends to BBM Music from your BBM contacts and gain access to their music and share your music (once they subscribe or join the free trial)
• Create playlists from your BBM Music songs plus your friends’ songs
• Share playlists or single songs with BBM Music friends
• Follow your friends’ BBM Music activity via timelines and comments, or start up a BBM chat about your favorite bands
• Cache music for easy offline listening
• Seamless integration with other BlackBerry music services

Let’s dig deeper into how BBM Music works and why it might become the must-have app for audiophiles and the über-social.

More friends = more music

What if every new friend came with a new favorite song? With BBM Music, they could, as long as they have agreed to share their music with you! Each BBM Music user can create a profile of up to 50 songs from the millions of tracks available in the BBM Music Catalog. In addition to those 50 songs in your profile, the more BBM Music friends you have, the more songs you can add and enjoy! In other words, your BBM Music friend’s music library = your music library.

BBM Music paid subscribers will get to discover, select and share full audio tracks. This includes not only the tracks in your 50-song profile, but also all the music in your BBM Music friends’ profiles, too (if they are paid subscribers or using the trial version).

A great way to stay up on what your BBM Music friends are listening to is by viewing the activity timeline on the Home tab. From there, you can see what playlists your BBM Music friends are creating, what songs they’ve added to their profiles, and the comments friends are posting on your track selections (BTW: My coworkers at RIM seem to really enjoy my addiction to indie rock =D).

From the Me tab, you can see your own BBM Music profile, including your 50-tracks and playlists, as well as the comments you’ve posted. You can also quickly see how many listens your music selections have received from your BBM Music friends, or shuffle your track list.

The Friends tab is the place to go to see your BBM Music friends and discover what they’re listening to. You can view specific friend’s playlists and tracks, add them to your own playlists, or post a comment. This is also the place to accept new BBM Music friend requests or send out some requests of your own. Of course, because BBM Music is a BBM-connected app, you can also start a BBM chat with any of your BBM Music friends from this tab.

Even more ways to discover music

If you’re looking to branch out and try something new, the Catalog tab is the place to go to find new tracks to add to your 50-song profile. Besides a general artist, album, song search, the Catalog tab also features preset song suggestions based upon genre, what’s new, top and most recommended tracks, and even picks from the BBM Music team. BBM Music will also tell you if a song of your choosing is in one of your friend’s music profiles, so you can grab it from them and not subtract from your 50-song total.

BBM Music also provides easy access to and from other BlackBerry music services for additional discovery and purchase. For example, if there are songs you love so much you’d like to purchase them, you can select the buy option and purchase directly from the Amazon MP3 Music Store.

No coverage = no problem

BBM Music tracks are cached to your SD card for offline listening, and you can do this for playlists, too, via the Options menu. This is a great feature for commuters, as you can access your music library even when you’re travelling to out of coverage areas. BBM Music also allows for music streaming over Wi-Fi, which together with the cache storage helps save on data usage.

BBM Music strikes a personal chord with me for two reasons. First, mobile music typically tends to be a solitary experience. BBM Music takes that solitary experience and makes it social with the people that matter to me most. Secondly, as life gets busier, I have less time to discover music (sad, but true). BBM Music allows my BBM friends to introduce me to the tunes I’m missing, and vice versa. I think BBM Music could become the “mixtape” for a new generation of mobile music users.

Stay tuned for more blog posts on BBM Music. Also, be sure to head over to the BBM Music page and sign up to be notified once the service launches.

For now, post a comment and let us know what you think (and maybe post a list of your all-time favorite songs or some great new indie bands I should be adding to my profile). I look forward to reading and hearing what you think!