Forget iCloud Beta; Sony's Music Unlimited Service Is Here Now
June 15, 2011
Score one for Android owners. Sony today released its Music Unlimited service for Android devices, which looks a lot like Apple's iCloud and upcoming iTunes Match product. Plus, it includes Pandora-like capabilities.
First announced in September, Music Unlimited had been available on other Sony products for a while now. However, now it also works on 3G- or Wi-Fi-powered Android devices as well.
Two packages exist: Basic and Premium.
Basic includes access to a library of over seven million songs from each of the four main U.S. labels, EMI, Warner, Sony, and Universal. Priced at just $4 per month, the Basic package allows users to listen to music like you can with Pandora, but without the ads.
Best of all, that four bucks will also give you the ability to scan and match your music library for playback on other Music Unlimited devices. And yes; it will work with iTunes. Apple's upcoming iTunes Match service will do this for $24.99 per year.
The Premium product costs $10 per month and gives you the ability to create playlists and listen to any song you want online.
According to Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation:
"'Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity' offers extensive breadth of content, easy music discovery and personalization through a synchronized music experience across a variety of compatible home entertainment and portable devices.”While much of the talk recently has centered on Apple’s iCloud system and those services being offered by Amazon and Google, Sony might have bested them all. Or it at least made the game more interesting. What we like most about this service is its Pandora-like integration. Perhaps Apple might want to rethink its iCloud plans to include something like this. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
