Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity is cloud-based digital music service. Not like an iTunes, users do not buy and download songs. But the service is not available on portable devices, which means users can not take their music anywhere.
This service made its debut in Ireland and England, and will be launched in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and New Zealand in 2011.
Kazuo Hirai, Sony's executive vice president, said the initial focus of these products is to increase the appeal of Sony products against competitors like Apple and Microsoft.
"We realized if we were playing catch-up with (iTunes) which is almost the same business model," said Hirai, as reported by the AP on Thursday (12/23/2010).
Music Unlimited service allows users to play music from a variety of Internet-connected devices like Sony's Bravia TVs, Blu-ray disc player, and PlayStation 3.
"As we continue to grow which makes global Qriocity, this service offers a single log-in ID. Empower users to easily consume content including music and video in more and more integrated devices," said Hirai.
Initially, Sony announced their plans to fight on iTunes in November, with project name "Sony Online Service. However, unexpectedly Sony change the plan, at some point in the future, to allow independent software developers to create applications for the service, such as the Apple iPhone App Store.
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