RIM may have a BlackBerry Messenger music app in the works

BlackBerry - the musical fruit?
BlackBerry - the musical fruit?

RIM may be working on a social music app that uses BlackBerry Messenger to share songs between friends.

The app, which may launch soon after BlackBerry App World 3.0 is officially released, is said to be named BBM Music and will come loaded on all new devices.

BBMers will be able to share songs and music playlists with their contacts, while RIM will also offer a music library of its own. Songs will be downloaded directly to the BlackBerry handset through the standalone app.

The hills are alive

For a subscription fee of around £3 a month ($5), BlackBerry users will be able to send and receive 50 songs every month.

RIM has promised that it has seven BlackBerry handsets waiting in the wings, and will be keen to make their messaging service an ever more attractive proposition now that Apple has gone and aped it with iMessage in iOS 5.

With most phone OS owners looking to find a way into cloud music storage, this could be RIM's main take on the trend; but will 50 songs a month keep the digital generation happy?

The rumour comes from an anonymous source talking to NerdBerry.net – while we haven't reported on any rumours from the site before, it's a well known fact that RIM is looking to social and hoping to incorporate BBM into as many other features as possible, so we'd say this rumour could well turn out to be true.

rumour meter

From NerdBerry via N4BB

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.