Samsung today announced that it will be launching a new line of portable media players and a state-of-the-art digital music service through a European partnership with MusicNet, the world's leading business-to-business digital entertainment services provider.

MusicNet will power the service and provide the underlying technologies and content library for Samsung's new subscription digital music service and download stores in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. In addition, Samsung is planning on expanding the service throughout Europe and Asia after its initial launch phase.

The service and stores, which are expected to launch later this year, will be compatible with Samsung's forthcoming line of MP3 and portable media players. Samsung's customers will have access to more than 2 million licensed songs, which includes content from all of the major record labels and more than 40,000 independent labels. In addition, the service will offer consumers an easy way to manage their files, as well as provide an intuitive software platform that will make music purchases, transfers and burning to CDs effortless.