Sony Announces Qriocity Music Service Availability in UK and Ireland

Launched at the beginning of the year, Sony's Qriocity digital music service has just been made available for consumers. The cloud-based, digital music service gives music lovers access to millions of songs from major labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., Warner Music Group and EMI Music, even while on the go.

Initially launched in the UK and Ireland, the service will be available in 2011 in more countries such as the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

The catalog of the service is currently offering about six million songs, but Sony plans to expand it over time.

“As we start to expand Qriocity globally, these services ‘powered by Qriocity’ offer a single ID log-in and wallet solution, and empower users to easily consume content including music and video across a growing number of integrated devices,” said Kazuo Hirai, president of Networked Products & Services Group, Sony Corporation.

“Seamless accessibility to content through these fresh user experiences will enrich Sony’s network service offerings and continually add value to the unique aspects of Sony’s network-enabled products,” added Hirai.

According to Sony, “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” allows users to play music anytime on a variety of Internet connected Sony devices including a wide range of Sony’s portable devices, as well as on Android-based mobile devices and other portable devices.

The service has been developed by Sony in partnership with Omnifone, which coordinate content licensing, development and delivery of the service.

Qriocity music service will be available with Basic (£3.99 in the UK and 3.99 Euros in Ireland) and Premium (£9.99 in the UK and 9.99 Euros in Ireland) monthly subscription plans.

In addition, the premium subscription plan offers a one-time 30-day Premium free trial that enables users to listen to full versions of every song on demand, create personal playlists of favorites, as well as gain access to premium Top 100 channels.