The BlackBerry multimedia player has become much better over the last few years but the hardcore music fans may still want to check out a service like Thumbplay Music.
We had a chance to play with the service at Research In Motion’s WES 2010 in Orlando and I was fairly impressed. It offers you access to more than 8 million tracks on the go. As you can see from the video below, you can stream the tracks (unfortunately, the networks were clogged during this event) or you can cache up to 1,000 songs to play without a network collection. The user interface was good, if a bit too menu-heavy.
Unlike some of its competitors, Thumbplay has the rights to sell songs directly too, so that’s option’s already baked in. There’s a relatively slick desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it’s easy to synchronize your playlists and tracks over to the handset. You can also easily import your iTunes playlist.
So, it’s tough to decide if Thumbplay is the right choice for you over Rhapsody or the upcoming MOG app (which both should eventually hit BlackBerry) because the feature set is about the same, as is the pricing. I’m still convinced it costs too much per month but it is definitely worth it if you’re a big music fan. There’s a free trial period, so feel free to check it out without too much commitment.
