Social games company DeNA is a big deal in its native Japan, reporting revenues of $567m and an operating profit of $216m in the final quarter of 2012 from its Mobage mobile social gaming network. Now it’s getting into music. DeNA has launched an Android app called Groovy in Japan, with iOS to follow. The app streams music from a catalogue of more than 1m songs according to Japanese tech blog Startup Dating, with Sony Music and Universal Music among its licensors. Groovy uses a system of credits to pay for music: one credit enables users to listen to a song up to three times a month, and they get 30 free credits for signing up, then pay 99 Yen (around $1) for bundles of 17 credits. Freebies are also on offer for inviting friends to join Groovy. The app is based on a previous music app, Discodear, which DeNA acquired last year.
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