Samsung Takes on iTunes, Spotify

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The Galaxy S3 is more than a flagship smartphone for Samsung-- it also launches Music Hub, the Samsung take on online music services of both iTunes and Spotify variety.

Music HubInitially exclusive to the Galaxy S3 (but will also launch on PC and other Samsung devices soon enough), Music Hub offers streaming, radio stations, cloud-based music storage and a music store, with a catalog of 19m songs courtesy of digital content technology provider 7digital.

The service will be available in free (offering 30-second song previews) and premium (with €9.99 monthly subscription) versions.

"Samsung is not known for our content services... We make good hardware products but we haven't done much in the content space but that's changing," Samsung Media Solutionn Center VP T.J. Kang tells Reuters.

Will Music Hub manage to dent both iTunes and Spotify? Probably not, analysts at Informa argue. Samsung lacks experience beyond making attractive hardware-- not to mention it uses separate operating systems in its smartphones and Smart TVs, making convergence difficult.

"Without this homogeneous cross-device experience, Music Hub will simply be another paid-subscription and cloud music service in a market that is already starting to feel more than a little crowded," Informa concludes.

Go Samsung Music Hub