Tony Talks Tech

While Sony attempts to turn around lagging sales for its Playstation 3 video game console, it is also directing its attention towards a new pursuit: the new streaming service Music Unlimited. The service launched in the U.K. and Ireland on December 22, 2010, and Sony will be bringing the service to America and other countries sometime in 2011.The U.K./Ireland version features 6 million songs from both major and independent labels, and you can listen to it on your Playstation 3. Music Unlimited is also compatible with other Sony devices, including HDTVs, home theater systems, Blu-ray players, and PCs. Users have the option of paying 3.99 pounds per month for basic service or 9.99 pounds per month for a premium, ad-free service. Music Unlimited offers users an unlimited number of song skips, unlike on other services.This isn’t the first time Sony has attempted a music venture, and it’s not an original idea, either. Sony’s CONNECT Music Store ran from 2006 to March 2008, although it was never released in America. This store featured acoustic “CONNECT Sets” by popular artists and Sony’s proprietary ATRAC3 compressed music format, but buggy software and a divided development team kept the service from catching on.There are already a number of established music streaming services, many of which have at least a basic free plan, unlike Sony’s service. For example, Grooveshark is a free service that lets you search for any song, artist, or album and build a playlist. New songs are uploaded to the database by users. Pandora, one of the oldest services, analyzes music based on over 400 different attributes and plays songs with similar attributes. This service is free, although a 36 per year premium service is also offered. On Last.fm, you can track what songs you listen to and get suggestions, in addition to playing personalized streaming radio. Some songs are available for free download. The service is available for free, with a premium plan for 3 a month.We don’t know yet when Sony plans to bring the service to the United States. However, we do know that Sony plans to expand the service on Sony portable and Android-based devices as well. Which event will come first is anybody’s guess. The fact that there are existing streaming services that are also available on a number of different devices is one of the most obvious obstacles to the service’s acceptance by new users.