Hewlett-Packard has teamed up with UK mobile music company Omnifone to launch a subscription-based music service in 10 European countries.
Omnifone developed the MusicStation platform to deliver unlimited cloud-based music downloads on mobile devices. Although Spotify stole some of its thunder with the launch of its streaming music app for the iPhone, Omnifone will now get a wider reach, as it will be preinstalled on millions of HP's laptop and desktop computers (HP mentions Pavilion, Presario and Envy series).
The service will be available in the following countries: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. Unlike on iTunes, users won't be buying individual tracks or albums, but paying a monthly fee instead. This fee will be roughly $14 per month, but it varies slightly in different countries.