Sony Throws Hat into Subscription Music Service Ring

Posted 12/22/2010 at 10:00am | by Paul Lilly

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Hey, just what the world needs, another subscription streaming music service, right? Not exactly, but it's getting one anyway, this time courtesy of Sony, Yahoo News reports.

Sony's "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" is based entirely in the cloud, meaning you can't download tracks. What music lovers do get is access to some 6 million songs, and they can be streamed across Sony's Internet-connected devices, including the PlayStation 3 console and Bravia TVs.

By integrating the service into its products, Sony's hoping its existing userbase will help it chip away at iTunes, though acknowledges this won't be easy.

"We realized that if we were playing catch up with the same (iTunes) model, it would be difficult to appeal to users," Kazuo Hirai, executive VP and head of Sony's Networked Products and Services division, told reporters in Japan. "But over time, it needs to stand on its own."

The service launched in the U.K. and Ireland this week. Sony said it plans to expand the service to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, and the U.S. sometime next year.