New portable media players and a full-featured online music service will be rolled out by Samsung Electronics through a long-term European partnership with MusicNet, a business-to-business digital entertainment services provider.


"Listening to digital music has transcended the individual experience and now empowers consumers to bridge generations and share their experience with others," said Seungsoo Park, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, Digital AV division, Digital Media Business. "Our forthcoming K5 media player, which will be available later this year, will offer consumers an exciting new way to listen to and experience digital music on-the-go."

More precisely, MusicNet will power the service and provide technologies and content for Samsung's new subscription digital music service and download stores in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Moreover, Samsung's representatives said that the company intends to expand its offering throughout Europe and Asia.

The service and stores will be fully compatible with the company's future to come line-up of MP3 players and PMPs (portable media players). The program is expected to launch later this year, and it will offer more than 2 million well-known songs coming from all of the major record labels and more than 40,000 independent labels.

"Our partnership with MusicNet completes our product package," added Park. "Our customers will be excited to have the coolest Samsung MP3 player combined with unlimited access to over two million tracks in the easiest possible way. We selected MusicNet as our partner because of their expertise in creating digital entertainment services, and we are confident that they will enrich our customers' experience," concluded Alan McGlade, President and CEO of MusicNet.