Sony has got itself into the music services industry with they launching Sony Music Unlimited which is a cloud-based music service that is poised to rival Apple’s iTunes. However instead of downloading music to their computers, consumers will be streaming the music from Sony’s cloud based servers.
Users can access music from any where in the world provided they are connected to the internet. Users can subscribe on a monthly basis and one monthly subscription will give users access to six million songs from major record labels. The list also includes a number of small, independent labels too.
Sony partnered with a cloud-based music firm, Omnifone. Omnifone had licensing contracts with four main record labels which made it easier for Sony to bring in that content. The service is powered by Qriocity which is a streaming video on demand service. Users with an Qriocity account can use that to log into Music Unlimited, giving a single log-in for both music and movies.
The service is now available in the UK and Ireland, but expansion to the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand will follow in 2011.