The service, developed with Universal Music Group, aims to go beyond music downloads by offering SingTel mobile customers access to music videos, entertainment news, pre-album releases and live performances with stars. It is being billed as the first service of its kind in Asia-Pacific.
US pop star Lady Gaga was roped in to launch the service for the telco over the weekend.
Other sweeteners for the telco’s 3G handset customers, to differentiate the service from Nokia’s Comes With Music and Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow offerings, include absorption of data charges for users to surf and download music.
Consumers are also given 15 DRM-free songs every month to own and share. AMPed is offered at no additional cost on selected mobile plans.
Currently, the service boasts 500,000 songs in its library and is accessible on PC and by mobile customers using Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG handsets.
Wong Soon Nam, vice president of consumer marketing at SingTel, called AMPed a move toward boosting user experience for his firm’s 1.5 million post-paid customer base. Allen Lew, SingTel’s CEO, further noted that “AMPed is another demonstration of SingTel’s transformation into a multimedia solutions company”.
The telco’s latest digital offering comes hot on the heels of the launch of an advertising services arm, iMedia, to deliver integrated platforms for advertisers, and a local lifestyle web portal, inSing.com, through a new subsidiary, SingTel Digital Media.
