BT has announced the launch of a new music streaming service that’s available to its TV customers.
Thanks to a deal done with Universal Music, hundreds of thousands of BT TV subscribers will be able to add the BT Music service alongside their mix of entertainment, live sports and movies channels.
The music service is being offered for free to existing TV customers, but new subscribers will need to pay £3/month. The advert-free service complements the 2,500 music videos, live concerts and karaoke tracks already available on BT TV.
Read Recombu Digital’s guide to BT YouView and BT VisionWhile BT has only signed a deal with one major music label, Alex Green, director of BT TV, is confident that the company will add more music soon. Green said: “We are really excited to have signed this contract with Universal Music and we are hopeful we can sign other deals with more labels in the near future.
“This takes our Music offering to another level, at no additional cost to customers. It will allow them to enjoy a whole album at times when they are not necessarily able to sit down and watch the TV.”
While newcomers will have to fork out £3/month for the music catalogue that comes with 150 albums as part of the new deal. Spotify, which is offered on a discounted basis to Virgin Media customers, normally costs £10/month, so on a price basis, BT Music is compelling.
The Spotify catalogue contains roughly 20 million tracks, so it depends on what other deals BT signs with other labels in the future.
We asked BT if there were plans to introduce mobile apps for BT Music, letting subscribers access the music library in the same way that BT Sport viewers can watch games on phones and tablets. There aren’t any current plans for BT Music to go mobile, but things could change in the future.
BT Music is the latest new service BT has launched for its TV customers. BT recently announed that NBA basketball would be heading to BT Sport and cheif executive Marc Watson recently hinted that BT could bid for World Cup broadcasting rights.
Other recent additions to BT TV include new Kids and HD channel packs along with Sky Movies. Those after some high brow arthouse cinema to go with the latest blockbusters available from Sky can sign up Curzon On Demand as well.
Image: BT
Additional reporting by Thomas Newton.
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