Smart boosts music streaming offerings

Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) is offering “premium bundles” for  global music-streaming service Deezer, as it seeks to capture a bigger slice of the song streaming and download market in the Philippines, a statement showed on Wednesday.

Deezer offers—with over 30 million songs and powerful music discovery solutions—will initially be available to Smart postpaid subscribers through Unlisurf premium plans starting at P1,175 a month.

The announcement of the Deezer bundles comes alongside Smart’s homegrown music service Spinnr, which offers song downloads for as low as P10 and music streaming for just P2.50 per day, the statement showed.

“Deezer completes Smart’s music portfolio as we strive to provide the complete music experience to all kinds of users,” Charles Lim, executive vice president and head of the wireless consumer division at Smart, said in the statement.

“Spinnr provides the total music experience to our subscribers with streaming and downloads of all the latest and hottest songs, the most anticipated concert events, meet-and-greets with their favorite artists and exclusive access to official merchandise. Deezer, on the other hand, provides music streaming with a large catalog of 30 million songs and the widest availability in more than 100 countries around the world,” he said.

Lim said there is vast potential in the music space considering the proliferation of new types of mobile devices in the Philippines, considered the fastest-growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia by a GfK Asia study in 2012.

“With smartphone adoption still expected to jump exponentially in the coming months, more users will gain access to Internet-enabled devices capable of music streaming, and Smart is the only mobile provider that will have a full lineup of music services ready for them,” Lim said.

Even though streaming was relatively new in the Philippines, Smart’s head of innovation and product development, Mellissa Limcaoco, said they are seeing more and more subscribers using the products.

“Just a few years ago, music streaming was not a familiar concept among most Filipino music lovers. With Spinnr, Smart has paved the way for more fans to affordably enjoy music anytime, anywhere without worrying about the limited storage space on their mobile devices,” Limcaoco said.

She added that with the introduction of Deezer to its music portfolio, Smart expects music streaming to be more pervasive as it hopes to address the varied tastes of music fans nationwide.