UPDATE 3.8.2010: Thumbplay contacted me less than 24 hrs after this post, and got me up and running on my blackbery 9760!
Thumbplay launched its music service this week, joining Mog, Rhapsody, Lala, Spotify, Last FM, and Myspace in the already crowded battle between streaming music services. The monthly subscription is $9.99. This is twice the rate of new entrant “MOG” (and $9.99 more than the free myspace!), but you get mobile access for the extra charge. Factoring in mobile makes Thumplay’s offer cheaper than Rhapaody’s similar desktop and mobile plan.
The selling point of Thumbplay Music is the ability to move your music to the cloud in one click by importing your playlists directly from itunes. It took just a few minutes to import 20 playlists, with 500 songs. The “import” was fast and accurate because it was only checking the data with the “cloud”, not actually moving files.
You can “import” songs to the cloud regardless of where they came from.
The second differentiator is Thumplay’s mobile access. With a full subscription, you can access your music and playlists from a “smartphone”.
Unfortunately the device list is small:
BlackBerry
Bold 9000
Curve 8900
Storm 9530
Tour 9630
Does it make sense to charge everyone for access with such a small device list? Since my blackbberry 9700 and iphone are not supported I cant comment on this part of the service.
Thumbplay contacted me less than 24 hrs after the orig post, and set me what I needed to set up my BlackBerry 9760! I’m listening now – full review coming!
The site says iphone and android support is coming soon. The site also directs you to check out the service with your mobile browser at thumbplaymusic.com. You’ll get the same version of the site that directs you to download the “desktop” software.
Thumplay’s Music service requires you to download a proprietary player (the service is not web based like MOG). The install worked easily direct from the Thumbplay site and support for both mac and pc is there. No surprises in the pc based player, nothing groundbreaking in the interface, and no sharing or social services.
While the import is nice and fast, mobile is the only game changer here. The pc based service offers nothing new. I haven’t seen any hands on reviews of the mobile access, so please comment with any links showcasing the mobile player! (working now – review coming soon!)
