RIM unveils new cloud-based music service

A person poses the new Blackberry Torch 9860 at a release party to promote the BlackBerry OS 7 devices in Toronto August 3, 2011.

(Reuters) - Canada's Research In Motion Ltd will unveil a new cloud-based social music sharing service called BBM Music, as companies begin to bet on entertainment delivered over the Internet that incorporates social networking features.

Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones, said select music from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music and EMI would be available for the users.

A closed beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting on Thursday in Canada, the United States and the UK, the company said.

The music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 in a number of countries, it said.

Cloud computing is being promoted as the new generation of data, entertainment and application storage, with users storing data not on computers or on local servers but in a "cloud" maintained by servers that may be in several locations.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)