RIM Launches Inexplicable BBM Music App

Though Slacker and Pandora have made the migration, the BlackBerry App World’s selection of music apps is pretty limited compared to competing platforms. In fact, the App World is found wanting in a couple different categories. But that doesn’t mean RIM isn’t open to improvement, albeit incremental improvement. That said, RIM today announced its BBM Music app.

It’s basically a subscription music app with a strong social element. For $4.99 monthly, you can have 50 different songs on what RIM is calling your BBM Music profile. From there, it really all depends on popularity. You have access to all of the music on each of your friends’ BBM Music profiles, so theoretically your selection could extend way past the original 50 songs. It could also remain at 50 songs if you can’t learn to play nice with others. Oddly enough, you can only swap out 25 of your songs a month.

In other words, it’s a VD-like music service except that the more you spread it, the more popular you are.

Since it’s all going down BBM-style, BBM will of course be a part of the mix. While in BBM Music, you’ll be able to message your friends through BBM as well as sharing songs. Users can also check out their friends’ music activity in a timeline to get truly stalkerish about it.

In truth, the bang you’ll be getting per buck isn’t all that great, especially if you’re lacking in the social department. But you have to applaud RIM for testing out the musical waters this way. They’re basically forcing users to invite and add friends because the more friends you have, the more music you can access.

RIM expects the app to roll out later this year, but the Beta is ready to roll in the U.S., U.K., and Canada right now. You must download BlackBerry 6 first to get in on the fun. More information is available at the BlackBerry Blog.