Sony Launches Cloud-Based Music Service in U.S. (NewsFactor)

Sony is launching a cloud-based music service that plays on its Bravia HDTVs, Blu-ray DVD players, and PlayStation 3 consoles. The service, called Music Unlimited Powered by Qriocity, is available for those networked Sony devices and is launching in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand.

The service, already available in Europe and Canada, costs $ 3.99 monthly for the basic version, streaming radio-like music in channels, along with “like” or “dislike” feedback so the service can tailor itself to your preferences.

Premium Service

A premium service, at $ 9.99 monthly, gives access to additional channels, plus the ability to search through the six-million-song database, available on demand and configurable by customizable playlists. The music has been licensed from the libraries of the big four record companies as well as from independent labels. A 30-day free trial is also available.

A cloud-based service means a customer can listen to the streams from any supported and networked device, compared to downloading the music to a specific device. Other cloud-based services, including Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify in Europe, have had varying degrees of success. Pandora, expected to go public in the near future, boasts about 80 million listeners.

Qriocity is expected to become available at some point for mobile devices, but Sony has said TV-based entertainment systems, game consoles, and Blu-ray players are the initial targets because they are a less-saturated market.

A web site, music.qriocity.com, offers a music sync feature for the service. It searches a user’s personal music library and will sync playlists to the cloud’s library, so the same titles can be accessed from the service — and from any supported device. Music can be added to a user’s online library either by using the search function on a PC and syncing, or by searching in the cloud.

Sony Leaving iTunes?

Qriocity first rolled out to the United Kingdom and Ireland in December, and then to France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Canada in the last few weeks. Some observers have described it as more of a music-oriented Netflix than a direct competitor to the leader in online music distribution, Apple’s iTunes Store.

In addition to Sony’s consumer entertainment devices, Qriocity is also available for PCs and Macs. The Mac version doesn’t yet support syncing, although that is expected to be resolved soon. An app for Android-based devices is also in the works.

Earlier in February, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Michael Ephraim hinted to news media that, if the Music Unlimited service is successful, the company might consider dropping out of the iTunes Store. “Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems,” he told news media, “and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.”

However, on Thursday Sony Network Entertainment COO Shawn Layden said Sony Music is not going to withdraw from iTunes. He added that either Ephraim’s words were taken out of context or the “person who spoke them was unclear on the circumstances.”