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Digital
Samsung serious about music
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 3 October 2012
Samsung has big ambitions in the digital music space, and wants to create a range of proprietary software for its mobile and tablet devices, according to Reuters. The South Korean electronics giant sees music, content and apps as important tools to compete with the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon, admitting that such services are not seen as revenue generators in themselves, but as add-ons to make the firm’s gadgets more attractive to consumers.
As previously reported, back in May Samsung launched its own Music Hub, powered with content by London-based 7Digital, and the SVP of Samsung’s Media Solution Center, Kang Tae-jin, has told Reuters he wants that to become one of the top four digital music services in the world. And the tech company’s wider music offers are expected to expand too, possibly through the acquisition of existing digital and mobile music platforms (they already required one called mSpot earlier this year).
Says Tae-jin: “We want to grow the Music Hub to rank in the world’s top four services within three years in both revenue and subscriber numbers. And to shorten the time, we’re ready to do more acquisitions, if needed. Mobile business is what Samsung is doing really well, and as a result we have deep pockets. We are very serious about content business, as we showed with the acquisition of mSpot”.
He continued: “The message we’re getting from the top is to raise software capability, and buy rather than build, if needed. Our focus on software is primarily aimed at driving hardware sales, rather than making money. We have a full range of handsets in so many countries, and, to better market our products, we thought it’s better to start our own software business”.
Needless to say, Tae-jin wouldn’t comment on the services his company may be interested in acquiring, though obviously speculators will speculate that both Spotify and the publicly listed Pandora might be possible takeover targets, even if neither are particularly interested in being bought just now.
