Samsung Music Hub to expand to non-Samsung devices
Samsung wants its Music Hub to be the next big music store, but the South Korean OEM knows it can’t do it while only offering the service on its own handsets (and only a few select handsets, at that). Well, it looks like the next step is finally ready to be taken as TJ Kang, Samsung’s senior vice president for Samsung Media Services, has confirmed that the service will expand soon.
Samsung still has many devices under its own belt to hook-up, but it will open its arms to other OEMs, as well. Music Hub is something Samsung used to add more value to the Galaxy experience, but Samsung’s desires in the realm of online music seem to extend far beyond mobile. Making Music Hub a more device-agnostic experience would definitely help.
For starters, most people tend to go with services like iTunes, Amazon and Google Music because of flexibility. Sure, those respective services might be pushed more on one platform vs another, but nothing’s holding users back from enjoying that content on any devices they want.
It’s a big reason why I personally “disable” Music Hub on my phone — I’ll never use it as long as I am told that I have to be locked into a Samsung device to continue enjoying my purchases. If I can download my music on, say, a Nexus 7 or an HTC One X then I would be more than happy to throw my business their way every now and then.
Samsung will also have to change in a few other different areas. It has to go global with Music Hub, for one — being in just six countries won’t cut it. Kang confirmed the company would look to expand the service’s global footprint starting this year, but didn’t give an estimate as to how many countries it expects to roll out in.
Samsung has to look beyond mobile and tablets, as well, as it has a whole host of other products to serve. Smart TVs, personal computers, and even smart refrigerators (if that’s your thing) stand to be given some music-enabling love over the coming months. Samsung’s acquisition of mSpot won’t be wasted if these plans pan out how we think they will, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens to determine how serious Samsung is about challenging the biggest players in the game.
[via SammyHub]