Meanwhile, RIM is trying to build a music service…

CNET’s Greg Sandoval and Roger Cheng:

At a time when Research in Motion needs to sex itself up, the Canadian smartphone maker is in talks with the four largest record companies about launching a new music service to run on top of BlackBerry Messenger, the company’s instant-messenger service, multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiations told CNET.

Okay, so RIM sees the ecosystem that Apple has — music, apps, etc. — and now it wants its own. (What’s next, the BlackBerry BBookstore?)

This may have helped in 2008. But I don’t see how it could make up for RIM’s much larger problems now. If anything, RIM should be focusing on making the best platform possible for others like Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio to work on — and maybe bribing BlackBerry subscribers with free or cheap premium subscriptions.

I still have very little confidence in a BlackBerry comeback.

Related: RIM’s real problem could be finding someone to buy it