Samsung jumps into crowded music market

Samsung on Friday unveiled a free music service for users of its Galaxy smartphones, entering a crowded market that includes Pandora, Spotify and Apple's iTunes. The service dubbed "Milk Music" will offer some 200 ad-free radio stations to US customers with Samsung Galaxy devices. "Milk introduces a fresh approach to music that reflects our innovation leadership and our focus on creating best-in-class consumer experiences," said Gregory Lee, president and chief executive of Samsung Telecommunications America. "We’re offering consumers amazing, rich music experiences built around what matters most to them and their lifestyle. Milk is powered by the radio service Slacker. The company suggested it may take a page from Apple by offering "unique music programming from top selling and emerging artists" available exclusively through the platform. The South Korean Electronics giant, which is the world's biggest smartphone maker and is challenging Apple in the US market, said the service will be offered with no log-in required and no need to browse for a specific artist or song. It will have 200 genre-based and curated stations and some 13 million songs, and like other service will allow six song skips per hour per station. Apple last year introduced its ad-supported iTunes radio service, which also allows customers to make purchases from the iTunes catalog.