Some eighteen months after Samsung launched its own streaming music service, Milk Music, the company has announced that it is officially giving up on the enterprise in the USA. In a brief statement, Samsung said that it will close the service in the U.S. on September 22.
We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices. We believe that working with partners will accelerate innovation, enhance device sales and provide amazing new experiences for our customers. We have no additional details to share at this time …
A photography and multimedia company by the name of Milk Studios filed a lawsuit against Samsung earlier this week, claiming the South Korean technology firm had violated its trademark with the name of its music streaming service. Filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, the company says that Samsung “intentionally, willfully and knowingly” used the Milk name for its music service called Milk Music which launched last spring for Galaxy device users.
When Samsung launched its entirely free “Milk Music” service for Galaxy device owners in March, the “limited time” wording in its press release made us speculate that ads or a fee for the service would come in the near future. Today Samsung has finally confirmed as much in a blog post about the service posted to its Samsung Tomorrow blog. While taking some time to highlight features of the service, Samsung revealed that a $3.99/month ad-free “Premium Service” is on the way and that a free service will stick around but include ads. It looks like it will also offer an “Ad-free special introductory offer” that will let new users trial the service for free without ads for a limited time. Samsung says the new Premium Service subscription will be “available soon.”
Samsung announced today that it’s launching a new free and ad-free music service called “Milk Music” that’s powered by Slacker and available to customers of select Galaxy devices. Samsung says the app, which is available now on available as a download on Google Play, is “fully customizable” and offers over 200 stations and a library of over 13 million songs.
“Milk Music introduces a fresh approach to music that reflects our innovation leadership and our focus on creating best-in-class consumer experiences,” said Gregory Lee, president and CEO of Samsung Telecommunications America and Samsung Electronics North America Headquarters. “We’re offering consumers amazing, rich music experiences built around what matters most to them and their lifestyle.”
The service is launching today in the US and available to those with a Galaxy S® 4, Galaxy S® III, Galaxy Note® 3, and Galaxy Note® II as well as the upcoming Galaxy S 5. Samsung added that it will soon offer “unique music programming from top selling and emerging artists available exclusively through Milk Music.”
While Samsung is promoting the service as completely free and free of ads, the Google Play page for the app says that the app will only be without ads and free for a for a limited time. It’s unclear if Samsung is referring to the ads or the service being free of charge, but it appears that it will either be implementing advertisements or a fee for the service in the future.
