Digital music technology company 7digital has announced that it will be working with Canadian smartphone and tablet maker RIM (Research In Motion). The firm has been selected as the official music download provider for the BlackBerry 10 (BB10) powered smartphones that will be released during Q1 2013.

The music section of BlackBerry App World will be powered by 7digital and will feature new releases, regionally relevant selections, a full back catalogue as well as independent artists. This means that BB10 users will be able to browse, preview as well as buy high quality digital music from BlackBerry App World. Currently, there are more than 22 million tracks on offer from the 7digital digital music catalogue.

The move by RIM is in contrast to that of Nokia and Microsoft, who have made free live music streaming services available to Lumia smartphone users via Nokia Mix Radio and Xbox 360 gamers by way of Xbox Music respectively.

RIM’s effort might not be as a big draw for users as Mix Radio for instance, since Nokia’s service allows users to stream tracks and albums for free (besides data costs involved) and then purchase the ones they like via the Nokia Music Store from their device as well.

7digital and RIM have worked closely together in order to integrate both 7digital’s open music platform technology as well as RIM’s BlackBerry mobile platform capabilities that includes  social networking integration and track recommendation features.

The company stated that its music services will be available for BB10 device users within South Africa, the UK and US, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Malaysia and Singapore.

In related news, RIM also recently revealed the screen resolutions that BB10 powered smartphones will be shipping with next year during Q1 2013.