Why the song limit is a killer feature

Hello crackberry nation!
Here are my thoughts on the song limit and how this very feature is a real wow one.

im not here to discuss pricing but only to defend the limit principle

So i think that limiting people to 50 songs is actually great since it forces you to clean your playlist on a regular basis. think of this as a DJ set list. you only want to listen to hot content. so playing your friend's list will ensure that you dont keep skipping 'archive' music that you are bored to listen.

This will futher enhance the social thing. given you had unlimited songs...what would be the point of having friends on your list? see whay they added? because if you were on unlimited ... you would have already downloaded....i mean pointless.

Seriously, ive been on the beta test for long enough to see the potential of this monster.

IMO the 'limit' feature is indeed a killer - but not in the way suggested above. We first have to assume that all your friends are using BlackBerrys and that they have subscribed to the service. Then we have to assume that a thrash metal merchant would indeed be interested in listening to Lady GaGa and the Smurfs, and vice versa. And then we would have to assume that all of these people would be happy to put up with the FURTHER limit of being only able to swap 25 of their tracks per month (less than one track per day), which will in turn lead to friends cancelling their subscriptions, which will lead to you being on your own with 50 tracks, half of which cannot be swapped for two months, which will lead to you cancelling your subscription, which is everything come full circle.

Originally Posted by steveraven

IMO the 'limit' feature is indeed a killer - but not in the way suggested above. We first have to assume that all your friends are using BlackBerrys and that they have subscribed to the service. Then we have to assume that a thrash metal merchant would indeed be interested in listening to Lady GaGa and the Smurfs, and vice versa. And then we would have to assume that all of these people would be happy to put up with the FURTHER limit of being only able to swap 25 of their tracks per month (less than one track per day), which will in turn lead to friends cancelling their subscriptions, which will lead to you being on your own with 50 tracks, half of which cannot be swapped for two months, which will lead to you cancelling your subscription, which is everything come full circle.

Wrong, you don't need your bbm friends on bbm music, it's completely separate, you can add anybody and anybody can invite you, in less then a week I have 2000 songs available. You can also hide the songs or artists you don't like.

Pretty soon you discover some people that really know their music and have created some really cool playlists.

Biggest misconception is that you need many bbm friends for this, you don't, I only have 5 bbm friends on bbmm, the rest are random people, some with really cool music taste.

After a while chances are if you're looking for a song, it's already available to you from somebody else.

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4 BBM friends none with bbmm 900 songs and growing .

Ok so how its described above sounds good. But lets try a scenario here -

Lets say I wanted the complete songs of The Rolling Stones in my library.
I can get the first 50 myself obviously, but then I can find the rest by sharing with other Stones afficionados.
However - if those afficionados then change their playlists a month later, do I still have access to their original playlists thereby keeping my collection complete?
Or do I have to try and find them again?

Originally Posted by steveraven

Ok so how its described above sounds good. But lets try a scenario here -

Lets say I wanted the complete songs of The Rolling Stones in my library.
I can get the first 50 myself obviously, but then I can find the rest by sharing with other Stones afficionados.
However - if those afficionados then change their playlists a month later, do I still have access to their original playlists thereby keeping my collection complete?
Or do I have to try and find them again?

This is not what bbm music is about, it's not about music ownership (to have a certain band songs forever) and it's not for people who are completely set in their ways (only listen to a few bands and that's it)

It's about choosing 50 songs you really like, and exchanging 25 of them every month for other songs you really like. The rest is about discovering new music, new people and evolving new taste if you really launch yourself into it.

My opinion is bbmm goes against the culture of ownership and instead incurages you to pay a small fee for many "performances" by the artists.

It's definitely not about creating an entire collection of one band's songs, but when you feel like listening to one of their songs just add it to your 50, chances are after a while (I have 2000 songs available now) somebody else already has it.

That's my take on it.

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So its like a glorified radio station then, dependant on what other people have in their collection.

Sorry but I'd give this system a year at most.

You can get streaming radio for free.

Thats my take on it.

Originally Posted by steveraven

So its like a glorified radio station then, dependant on what other people have in their collection.

Sorry but I'd give this system a year at most.

You can get streaming radio for free.

Thats my take on it.

You're ignoring the social aspect, the fact that you can choose your songs/artist/genera, you can ignore a song or artist, and you can listen to explicit content, you can create playlists, share playlists and listen to other people's playlists and you can cache all the songs on the media card for off line listening, no need for streaming.

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No, I'm ignoring none of the above at all. To say that this is going to be a paid subscription service, and you can only play tracks that are on your own SINGLE (as opposed to unlimited number of) playlist, or tracks that happen to be on other peoples playlist, is nothing to do with it being a social feature. The fact is, that the likes of LastFM, Napster, Grooveshark, Spotify et al, ALL run using a social aspect, without the ridiculous restraint of a 50 track playlist, so the social aspect is nothing new. And if saving the tracks to MMC is the solution then I'd just use a free mp3 download site to do this.

I applaud BB for trying something like this out, but compared to other streaming services, BBMusic is in the dark ages. And as I said before, I can see this lasting one year at the most unless its turned into a free service.

I have yet to have a song Ive added from anothers list leave my playlist when they delete that song off their list .. #justsaying.. unless you try it - dont bother arguing against it - it can be what you make it

Originally Posted by steveraven

No, I'm ignoring none of the above at all. To say that this is going to be a paid subscription service, and you can only play tracks that are on your own SINGLE (as opposed to unlimited number of) playlist, or tracks that happen to be on other peoples playlist, is nothing to do with it being a social feature. The fact is, that the likes of LastFM, Napster, Grooveshark, Spotify et al, ALL run using a social aspect, without the ridiculous restraint of a 50 track playlist, so the social aspect is nothing new. And if saving the tracks to MMC is the solution then I'd just use a free mp3 download site to do this.

I applaud BB for trying something like this out, but compared to other streaming services, BBMusic is in the dark ages. And as I said before, I can see this lasting one year at the most unless its turned into a free service.

The problem with your examples are this: none of them are global, some don't have a blackberry app (spotify and posibly grooeshark) and they're all double the price of the BBM Music. I would spend �5 but not �10 on a music service. The difference is a full tank of petrol for me or an extra 400 miles a year.

If a blackberry user had �5 to spare on music, can you give him an alternative to bbmm?

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Well the Grooveshark app is 9Dollars per month to stream and/or save their whole library plus delve into your own plus others's playlists, plus upload your own songs, plus a desktop app. I still have the desktop app but found the mobile app far too unstable. Thats not the point however - For �5 on BBMusic, you get 50 tracks, then you can change 25 of them once a month, and you can hope that someone else has any missing songs that you wanted on their playlist. Which is a bit like subscribing to a daily newspaper and only being given one page and being told that you need to go to your neighbours' houses to read the other pages.

For 9 Dollars a month (ok its a bit more than �5) you get a desktop app, a mobile app, unlimited songs and playlists, unlimited access to other peoples playlists, widgets to place your playlists onto websites (plus of course social network sharing), plus the opportunity to upload songs and download songs.

No-brainer IMO.

Originally Posted by steveraven

Well the Grooveshark app is 9Dollars per month to stream and/or save their whole library plus delve into your own plus others's playlists, plus upload your own songs, plus a desktop app. I still have the desktop app but found the mobile app far too unstable. Thats not the point however - For �5 on BBMusic, you get 50 tracks, then you can change 25 of them once a month, and you can hope that someone else has any missing songs that you wanted on their playlist. Which is a bit like subscribing to a daily newspaper and only being given one page and being told that you need to go to your neighbours' houses to read the other pages.

For 9 Dollars a month (ok its a bit more than �5) you get a desktop app, a mobile app, unlimited songs and playlists, unlimited access to other peoples playlists, widgets to place your playlists onto websites (plus of course social network sharing), plus the opportunity to upload songs and download songs.

No-brainer IMO.

steveraven... bbm music isn't for you then.

i on the other hand, use iTunes, Zune and others and I like bbm music. it's the best social app for music out there, IMO.

I love the idea of searching for users with similar tastes and even dissimilar tastes so I can listen to new types of music. Aside from your friends, your chances of finding someone with the same 50 is almost 0. So I'd like to listen to what others may like/listen to help me find new artists and songs that I would normally never listen to with unlimited streaming services.

Originally Posted by steveraven

Well the Grooveshark app is 9Dollars per month to stream and/or save their whole library plus delve into your own plus others's playlists, plus upload your own songs, plus a desktop app. I still have the desktop app but found the mobile app far too unstable. Thats not the point however - For �5 on BBMusic, you get 50 tracks, then you can change 25 of them once a month, and you can hope that someone else has any missing songs that you wanted on their playlist. Which is a bit like subscribing to a daily newspaper and only being given one page and being told that you need to go to your neighbours' houses to read the other pages.

For 9 Dollars a month (ok its a bit more than �5) you get a desktop app, a mobile app, unlimited songs and playlists, unlimited access to other peoples playlists, widgets to place your playlists onto websites (plus of course social network sharing), plus the opportunity to upload songs and download songs.

No-brainer IMO.

steveraven... bbm music isn't for you then.

I on the other hand, use iTunes, Zune and others and I like bbm music. it's the best social app for music out there, IMO.

I love the idea of searching for users with similar tastes and even dissimilar tastes so I can listen to new types of music. Aside from your friends, the chances of you finding someone with the same 50 is almost 0. So I'd like to listen to what others may like/listen to help me find new artists and songs that I would normally never listen to with unlimited streaming services.

I on the other hand didn't use any music service, just listened to podcasts on my BB. All of the sudden within a week I have 4gb of music chached on my BB and that's with songs/artists that I don't like, ignored from bbm music.

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If you have unlimited songs, there would be no point in having the social aspect of it...you would just download whatever you wanted. The point of the thing is to connect and share with other people. This is the unique and fun aspect of it. If you just want music there are already other options available...which people have pointed out many times.

I think this is fine for folks with BlackBerry phones but it'll be a case of diminished expectations on any other platform.

Originally Posted by tchocky77

I think this is fine for folks with BlackBerry phones but it'll be a case of diminished expectations on any other platform.

Huh? It's called BBM Music, it's not in any shape of form for other platforms.

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Originally Posted by belfastdispatcher

Huh? It's called BBM Music, it's not in any shape of form for other platforms.

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What I mean is, this will probably be well-received by BB users who have never been able to use Grooveshark or Spotify; but that Android/iOS users will see this as a regression from social music sharing programs they've been using for quite some time already.

Originally Posted by tchocky77

What I mean is, this will probably be well-received by BB users who have never been able to use Grooveshark or Spotify; but that Android/iOS users will see this as a regression from social music sharing programs they've been using for quite some time already.

Android users don't need to worry about it since this is a Blackberry only service.
Is there a music service for Android that only costs $5?

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Lol. Nevermind mate. Not having a go, truly. But to answer your question, I don't know.

Originally Posted by tchocky77

Lol. Nevermind mate. Not having a go, truly. But to answer your question, I don't know.

If what you were trying to say was bbm music will not make android users switch to blackberry to be able to get it you would be right lol, this is just added value/bonus for existing blackberry users.

One thing is for sure, the way it's made it quickly gets addictive and you discover so much new music.

Edit-Grooveshark is available to blackberry as well it turns out, only Spotify don't have a BB app. And other services are North America only like Pandora and Rdio.

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Originally Posted by belfastdispatcher

If what you were trying to say was bbm music will not make android users switch to blackberry to be able to get it you would be right lol, this is just added value/bonus for existing blackberry users.

One thing is for sure, the way it's made it quickly gets addictive and you discover so much new music.

Edit-Grooveshark is available to blackberry as well it turns out, only Spotify don't have a BB app. And other services are North America only like Pandora and Rdio.

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I use Rdio, on my BB, and I live in Brazil. BBM doesn't exist here, and also makes no sense: doesn't work on my computer and my Playbook, which makes it completely useless.

And, for example, in the next month I'll switch to a Galaxy Nexus. If I had BBM Music, I would have to use another service, and migrate all my playlists. With Rdio, I have access to my collection on my Blackberry, my iPod Touch, and my new phone, without any effort. And about the social part, I would say that Rdio is as good compared to BBM Music.

And 50 songs is just too little. That's what I hear in one day - time between gym and when i'm going to university.

I tried to explain this app in my blog, and what I felt were the VERY cool things this app brings...but people only ever see LIMITS. I have over 10,000 songs on my BBMM with just over 400 friends. The variety is astounding. The ability to add people to BBM (if desired) and search for genres, users etc is phenomenal.

But I digress.

I suggest you all try it (give it a month of daily use, while adding people)
BEFORE you say its crap.

Because it's not :D

I use it daily on my drive to work bluetooth connection to the car stereo, just choose genre and shuffle. Find threads here or other sites to find music friends with your taste and after you add a few you'll see comments from other folk for songs you like and add them too. I'm up to 128 BBMM friends and 2500 songs. PS I also run BB traffic in foreground to avoid the traffic jams.