Social.FM (formerly Mercora) has released a new version of its social music service platform for Windows Mobile and announced a new distribution deal with Microsoft.
The new Social.FM features improved application screens, sliding menus with transition effects, and an new white and green color scheme that is claimed to be “extremely fun-to-use for Windows Mobile customers.”
Social.FM announced that starting immediately Microsoft will provide a free lifetime subscription to Social.FM for all Microsoft employees worldwide. Under the deal Social.FM has joined the Microsoft Mobile2Market Program which promotes “Designed for Windows Mobile” logo-certified applications for Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and Pocket PCs to mobile operators, e-tailers, retailers and consumers.
Social.FM will announce its first Symbian platform client at the Symbian SmartPhone Conference in London later this week.
The deal with Microsoft is really nice, I use last.fm right now and hope to get the social.fm subscription from MS guys soon. No news about this from the inside btw…
Microsoft will provide a free lifetime subscription to Social.FM for all Microsoft employees worldwide. It was this or more of our stock, the employees voted for this.
Just another perk of working for us!
http:fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
@SB
well ur rite on this one… i hate the stock i own already …
Any deal with Microsoft is going to be a big deal. I think it’s nice of them to license it to their employees. Too bad Scoble won’t get one.
I want one! Good for Social.FM.
It’s quite surprising they’re making the service available free of charge. Well done!
i’ve had a go with social.fm and it’s rather nice actually. the sound quality is quite good on my n81 and it only cuts somewhat when i don’t have a good wireless signal. the nice thing is i’ve added a number of friends and i can easily browse their music libraries as if they were my own. now if i could only find friends with better taste in music…
snore.
Why are these guys doing this with a client that you have to download? They should just do it all through the web…sheesh.
I’ve been using the service since yesterday. My thoughts? It’s pretty rockin’ and easy to use…the best way I’ve seen to listen to your music on your mobile!
Yeah, a Microsoft deal will be huge. But you never know how it will play out.
Didn’t these guys sign a Microsoft deal a while back when they were Mercora? The product is great - and even better if you are a Microsoft employee, but what if you are the rest of us? How much does it cost?
I used to work here. Their technology is a sad joke. A badly written kludge of applications that run on Windows servers. The management team couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag. Their entire concept is built around the DMCA which, hopefully, will be repealed in my lifetime. As soon as the DMCA is repealed or changed, Mercora’s business doesn’t exist anymore.
@ Bob
Per the news reports I’ve seen, it’ll be available free of charge through 30 November. After which it’ll be US$ 19.95 on an annual basis.
It still kills me how Music/Radio oriented websites continue to register .fm domains as if the .fm was designed for Radio use.
.fm (Micronesia Federated States Of) [e.g. where Guam is located]
It’s NOT now and never will be a Radio Site tld!
@nigel porter
You should start a social network site geared toward people with better tastes in music. It could be digg-style so a person’s taste in music can be rated by others.
@ anon
I’ve taken a look at Social.fm and here’s what I found:
- there’s a desktop client with integrated IM and presence as well as a vorbis encoder/decoder
- they have flash and javascript widgets for myspace and other sites (no facebook yet)
- their mobile clients run on Symbian (native c++) which includes S60 and UIQ as well as Windows Mobile std/pro
- there’s a very interesting web app on the home page that looks and behaves exactly like Apple iTunes Cover Flow
Actually, it looks like they have some very interesting technology indeed.
So it seems you don’t have the slightest clue of what you’re talking about.
Check out http://www.gruuve.com we are testing it internally.
@ex-googler
that’s a brilliant idea, actually. any chance you’d happen to know any ex-google millionaires with scads of money to utilise as possible seed funding, by chance?
I’ve had a chance to test the Symbian client, and it is one of the sleekest music apps I’ve ever seen on mobile, and happily competes with iTunes client on the iPhone. For the non-iPhone crowd, this is the state-of-the art.
Yah real interesting stuff. A badly written set of server apps that run on Windows 2000 server and needs to be restarted daily. Let’s sink 50 million into it. Where do I send my check?
Hey Ben Sears, I just wrote a great desktop app. It has java, c++, IM, a BLT encoder, triple hydra encryption, a series 7 wang port, and as an added bonus, I ripped off the UI for iTunes. Where’s my check?
@ anon
streaming media in multiple formats to mobile phones with differing OS platforms is non-trivial.
If you truly worked there and left, perhaps you and they are better off…
Not able to verify this deal w/ MS. Tried to install both the desktop and Mobile app today and neither worked.
Idea is interesting, Usability and ease of use is crucial.