BY: MEGAN FAROKHMANESH

 

You're watching multisource tech video news analysis from Newsy. 

 

Want the latest rumor hot off the web?  RIM is launching a new music service for BBM -- BlackBerry Messenger. 

 

Several sources -- including CNET and Digital Trends -- say that RIM is already in talks with big music names such as Sony, Warner, EMI and Universal. The new service will apparently give users access to 50 songs at a time -- and allow them to share with friends. 

 

Why the sudden interest in more musical pursuits? According to CNET,

 

“RIM is linking its music service to BBM because it remains one of BlackBerry’s last critical assets. The messenger service acts as a social network keeping people on their BlackBerrys, and has been a valuable tool in retaining and adding overseas customers and younger customers in North America.”

 

And “young” is the key word here. According to Ars Technica, this music service will be...

 

‘...largely targeted at ‘young users’ who want to customize their phones -- yes, the goal is to woo all those swaths of young, hip teenagers and early adults who are (not) falling over themselves to buy a BlackBerry at the moment.”

 

So, if successful -- what does this mean for RIM? The LA Times says, quite a lot.

 

“The rumored plan is quite the ambitious one. If true, it could give RIM a service to compete with Apple’s iTunes and Google Music. RIM has been losing market share to Apple’s iPhone and phones running Google’s Android OS for more than a year...

 

A beta of the software is also rumored to be out soon -- but details are scarce. How the music service would work with the BlackBerry’s system is also still unknown. Gizmodo asks,

 

“...would chatters be able to share and recommend songs? List their current-played track in their status? If BBM does make it to other platforms as rumored, would the music service go with it?”

 

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Transcript by Newsy.