Line Free Calls & Messages is one of the most popular apps on Android and the Japanese company boasts 205 million active users. In order to further cement themselves as the definitive messaging app the company is trailing a $2.00 a month music streaming service.
Thailand is the second largest market for Line users, next to Japan. This is where Line Music is starting its pilot project. Will 30 million users embrace a paid music service that comprises of over 100,000 songs from major record labels such as RS Music?
Line is betting that they will. The main factor is that there is no international music streaming services in Thailand, other than Deezer. This gives Line the advantage of being able to offer a huge catalog of music by Thai artists.
The Thai market is not used to paying for digital content. Line will have an upward battle training their users to pay the $2.00 a month for unlimited music.
The overall timing of Line Music couldn’t be better. Last year Line purchased MixRadio Music from Microsoft for an undisclosed sum. The service just went live this week on Android and iOS devices. Line has confirmed that the two music services are being independently run from each other, but you have to figure that there will be crossover synergy on the business level.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.