Sony has officially launched their new “Music Unlimited by Qriocity” service in the UK and Ireland as of last week, and announced plans to roll out to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States some time next year. This seems to be the logical follow-up to their on-demand video service already available in the US and parts of Europe. Sony owns several major record labels including Arista, Columbia, Epic, and RCA, giving them rights to a massive library of music.
The online music space is dominated by Apple’s iTunes service, with Microsoft’s Zune coming in a distant second. Sony’s service, unlike these, streams music rather than requires you to download the tracks, which would seem to place it as more of a competitor to Pandora, Slacker Radio, and other online streaming services. Subscribers won’t be able to download and save songs to their device.
Music Unlimited will feature a library of over 6 million songs, available on the PlayStation 3, select Internet-connected Sony TVs, and PCs and laptops. There’s no support for mobile devices like Sony phones or Walkman family devices, but plans to “eventually” add support to those devices. Somewhat baffling, as one of the most popular aspects of services like Pandora and Slacker is the ability to stream on your mobile device.
Pricing information isn’t available yet, nor is an exact date for US availability.
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