Line Music Streaming Service Unveiled With Sony, Avex Digital as Partners

Messaging app company Line has partnered with Sony Music Entertainment and Avex Digital to launch Line Music - a new subscription-based service for online music-streaming, which the company had announced in October during Line Conference Tokyo 2014.

In the three-way partnership for Line Music Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment reportedly holds 40 percent shares, Avex Digital holds 20 percent share, and the remaining 40 percent is with Line Corporation Japan. Rest of the details are not yet known as yet.

While making the announcement on Thursday, the Line blog noted, "Line Music Corporation, backed by the three companies of this partnership, is currently in the process of holding concrete discussions on how to best capitalise on the appealing content and experience developing music services possessed by both ADG and SME, as well as the global user base and experience developing and operating smartphone services boasted by Line, in order to provide opportunities for users to be exposed to new music, and to further develop and accelerate the expansion of the music industry as a whole by creating all new ways of enjoying music in the smartphone era."

In October, during the Line Conference Tokyo 2014, company had also made several other announcements about its existing and upcoming ventures. In a statement, Line had said it has 170 million monthly active users, from a total of 560 million users. Apart from its digital ventures, Line had announced that it will be launching offline ventures in certain regions.

The company is planning a foray into the mobile payments business with Line Pay, which is scheduled to launch in "winter 2014". This will enable users to pay for different services using the Line app on iOS or Android. Line Pay will also let users split the cost through a feature called "Share Payment".

Regarding other offline ventures, Line announced that it will enter the commercial taxi industry in Japan with Line Taxi. The company is also planning to enter the food delivery business in Japan with a service called Line Wow.