Sony Music Unlimited Goes Live Today In US, Australia & NZ With 30 Free Day Trial
Sony brings "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocoty" to the US (Noon ET), Australia and New Zealand today. First launched in the UK in December, the awkwardly named music service extended to other EU markets during Midem. Designed to compete with everyone from iTunes to Spotify and Rdio to Pandora, as well as, to unite content across Sony manufactured devices, Music Unlimited does a fine job on most fronts, but comes with a serious flaw.
The flaw? "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocoty"is not portable, though Sony says that will change sometime soon. After a 30 day free trial, monthly plans start at $3.99 per month for a radio like service that offers little customization to $9.99 for unlimited access, playlists, etc.
Pundits are already dismissing Sony as late to the party and it's true that Music Unlimited offers little that's new. But its also important not to diminish the potential created by having this service pre-embedded in millions of consumer electronic devices around the globe making connections similar to those that Apple has made with iTunes and its iPod, iPhone, iPad and computers.
In fact, breaking Apples' dominate position in music and other digital media is Sony's end game with Music Unlimited. As Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, Michael Ephraim said recently, they're tired of being held for ransom by Apple"."
Being an Apple fan since the 90’s, I’ve never felt held for ransom by Apple. I have felt “held for ransom” by several sony products with proprietary technologies rendering them unusable with my Apple products. I don’t buy sony.
All streaming sites pay far to little to the artist, it’s a scandle. With more portable online devices and more and data for your money, downloads could be dying and artists may have to rely on streaming for income on their recorded material. Nobody wants to pay more for anything but they should do in this case. Does anyone know the profit margin on streaming sites?