Sony's 'Music Unlimited' Service Headed to iPhone and iPod Touch

MacRumors · Jan 11, 2012

VentureBeat reports that Sony will be bringing its "Music Unlimited" streaming service to the iPhone and iPod touch within the next three months, looking to make inroads into Apple's ecosystem that has been dominated on the music side by iTunes.

The electronics company will offer a free iPhone and iPad app for Music Unlimited at some point this quarter, Tim Schaaff, head of Sony Entertainment Network said today at a small CES media gathering.

Additionally, the iOS app will offer offline caching for subscribers to Sony's service, allowing users to save their playlists for listening when away from a network connection.

Sony introduced its Music Unlimited service nearly a year ago and garnered some attention when a company executive suggested that Sony Music could pull its content from the iTunes Store if Music Unlimited proved successful, although another Sony executive disputed that notion soon after.

Sony's Music Unlimited app for iOS (Source: The Verge)

As a subscription service, Apple would take a 30% cut of a revenue from subscriptions generated through an iOS app from Sony. But Apple's scaled-back subscription rules that went into effect last year would allow Sony to still offer an app without having to share revenue with Apple as long as the app itself does not allow subscription signups and does not contain any external links to sign up for service outside of the app.

Article Link: Sony's 'Music Unlimited' Service Headed to iPhone and iPod Touch

furi0usbee · Jan 11, 2012

I welcome competition. I don't rent my music, but it's nice to have the choice. Also drives prices down. Competition is good. Waiting for Google Music to appear.

Bryan

Anaemik · Jan 11, 2012

Thanks Sony, but I'll be sticking with Spotify.

heyitsmecarlos · Jan 11, 2012

???

whats up with the giant CARRIER at the top left? its an iPod touch.

Ivan P · Jan 11, 2012

heyitsmecarlos said:
whats up with the giant CARRIER at the top left? its an iPod touch.

It's called a mock-up.

skellener · Jan 11, 2012

Does it come with a root-kit?

flindet · Jan 12, 2012

skellener said:
Does it come with a root-kit?

haha.. Nice. Yeah, it's important to remember these actions. Maybe they'll just give away everyone's credit card information at some point.

dvwtwo · Jan 12, 2012

I don't get it. All these minor also-ran music services - how many subscribers can they possibly have? Who's using them?

websyndicate · Jan 12, 2012

I use Spotify all the time now. If I want new music I can surf all I want legally and for 10 dollars a month I can easily afford that. 10 dollars isnt cheap for all but I see value in the service. You would really have to try Spotify to know how good the service is. I highly recommend it. i dont even use the iPod app anymore

*LTD* · Jan 12, 2012

furi0usbee said:
I welcome competition. I don't rent my music, but it's nice to have the choice. Also drives prices down. Competition is good. Waiting for Google Music to appear.

Bryan

The "competition is good" mantra, even repeated ad infinitum, carries little to no meaning when the competition just isn't viable.

All this sort of competition achieves is waste and redundancy.

paul4339 · Jan 12, 2012

How does this stack up against Pandora and Spotify?

websyndicate · Jan 12, 2012

paul4339 said:
How does this stack up against Pandora and Spotify?

Really its 2 different services. Pandora is like radio you pick a station. Spotify/Sony music you pick any song you want

Nobita · Jan 12, 2012

Don't they realise that people wants to buy and download music? Isn't that the whole point of iTunes store? Go and watch Jobs's keynote on youtube.

5aga · Jan 12, 2012

I'll stick with Rdio, they have a pretty good collection and also I hate Sony's greedy a$$es

Larrywb · Jan 12, 2012

I'm happing with buying the music I really like, listening to radio in car, and listening to Pandora at home. I don't see a need for Spotify or Sony for myself.

patent10021 · Jan 14, 2012

Ugh..that means iTunesMatch definitely won't be coming to Japan any time soon.

JesseFogarty · Jan 15, 2012

I could just be my opinion but there Sony may be a little to late. Hopefully if anything Sony will at least moderately price subscription plans if they're hoping to steal any music sales from Apple's iTunes or Spotify.

iEvolution · Jan 16, 2012

skellener said:
Does it come with a root-kit?

Yup! Also includes a two week hacking clause in the event your information gets stolen they don't need to tell you for a couple of weeks!

malnar · Jan 18, 2012

dvwtwo said:
I don't get it. All these minor also-ran music services - how many subscribers can they possibly have? Who's using them?

Millions. Each of the major ones (Spotify, Rdio, Mog, etc.) has millions. Not so "minor", are they?

heyitsmecarlos · Feb 23, 2012

Ivan P said:
It's called a mock-up.

thank you!

stylez4o1 · May 5, 2012

I'm still waiting for this app to come out. I originally started a subscription on the PS3, then I found out I could stream music from my PC as well. I got really excited when I found out it will be coming out for ios. I think it's a great service for $10 a month. No commercials, listen to any song/album you want, skip as many times as you want. They also have "channels" that are similar to radio stations.

I should try Spotify, and see how it compares.

stylez4o1 · May 5, 2012

Spotify > Sony

Doom878 · May 21, 2012

It was supposed to have been released today but I don't see it yet. I went with MOG over Spotify since I can't download software at work and Spotify didn't have a browser based player at the time.

Sony's 'Music Unlimited' Service Headed to iPhone and iPod Touch

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