MTV & MusicQbed partner for MTV TRAX, providing free streaming for three months

MusicQbed, the company behind the O2 Tracks initiative that has shown there is an audience for alternative music streaming offerings, has launched a partnership with MTV in the UK.

The result is the MTV TRAX mobile app built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA).

The app is available both iOS and Android devices, is free to access between now and January and offers listeners the opportunity to wake up to the hottest songs that are downloaded overnight free of charge.

The mobile music service offering changes daily and includes several playlists, including MTV’s own social chart “Your MTV Top 20”.

The app is pretty neat, it requires the standard Facebook or Google login but surprisingly the Facebook login prompt doesn’t ask for permission to post on your behalf, which is refreshing.

After login, users are presented with a screenshot stating “Hey (Username) Your Search Is Over. This is the only music app you’ll ever need.”

This is a serious effort on MTV and MusicQbed’s part. Playlists include:
- EMA Winners
- Nicky’s Greatest: a selection of 10 Nicki Minaj songs
- EMA Performers
- Most Wins to 1D: a selection of One Direction songs
- The Biggest Tracks
- Workout time

Since MTV has managed to include the biggest tracks from some of the biggest names in pop and since the app is completely free of advertising the question mark is: is this purely a branding exercise or is MTV thinking about launching a paid service around the app once the stated three months come to an end?

Given MusicQbed’s previous efforts with O2 tracks our money is on the latter. It is a wise move though to wait until the announcement of a service since whether and how the launch will happen will largely be dictated by how the largely teen demographic the app is aimed at receives it.



(Andrea Leonelli)