Samsung starts service to challenge Apple's iTunes

Seoul: Samsung has started a service that lets users listen to music stored online as the world's top smartphone maker competes with Apple to win consumers seeking entertainment content on their handsets.

The Music Hub service, which will be first available on the Galaxy S III smartphone that went on sale in 28 countries yesterday, has a cloud-based catalog of 19 million songs for purchase, the South Korean company said in a statement.

For a fixed monthly fee, consumers can also upload songs to servers for streaming on the maker's devices, the electronics major said.

Following Sony

Samsung follows rivals including Sony in introducing a music service to challenge Apple's iTunes online store, which offers more than 20 million songs.

The Music Hub service will be made available on a range of devices, Samsung said.

While Sony's Music Unlimited service requires an internet connection for streaming songs, the Music Hub allows users to store songs on individual devices for listening offline as the iTunes service does.