14 DAY TRIAL // Sony, as rumors previously said, has announced a new cloud based music delivery service that is called Music Unlimited will be launched in Europe during the fall or winter of this year, with the company preparing to introduce more services based on its Qriocity media services.
The announcement was made at the Franchise Association Trade Show in Berlin and is part of Sony's strategy to push the PlayStation 3 as a media center alongside its capabilities as a gaming console.
Music Unlimited will be offered on the PlayStation 3 but it will also available on new Bravia television sets that are launching this year, in Blu-ray players that are being sold stand alone and using PC that have the Vaio brand.
Sony is also promising that other devices, probably the PlayStation Portable, will get Music Unlimited in the future.
The company says that the new music delivery service, which at the moment is not slated to arrive in North America, will have millions of songs but there was no disclosure on the record labels that will be included.
Sony is also not saying the pricing model for Music Unlimited but it will probably based on a subscription and there's a possibility that those who subscribe to the premium PlayStation Network Plus service might get it for free as part of the package.
It seems that the music delivery service will allow users to connect with friends and will offer recommendations based on the artists that someone previously listened to.
Kazuo Hirai, who is the president of Networked Products & Services Group at Sony, has stated, “We are excited to offer our customers high quality, cloud-based entertainment experiences across many of Sony's network-enabled devices.”
He added, “Services 'powered by Qriocity will revolutionize the way that users play, listen, watch, share, communicate, learn, discover and create their digital entertainment content.”