music unlimited

Sony offers cheaper -- and non-mobile -- $5 music service

BERLIN -- Sony announced a lower-cost $4.99 monthly option for Music Unlimited, a plan it hopes will increase adoption of the streaming-music service.

Sony announced its Sony Entertainment Network's $9.99-per-month music plan a year ago at the IFA consumer electronics show, letting customers tap into a library of 16 million songs using personal computers, PS3 game consoles, and Android devices. This year at the show, it announced the cheaper alternative, which offers the same library but which doesn't work on mobile devices.

"It's going to bring new customers in, that's for sure," … Read more

Sony releases Unlimited Music app for iPhone

Sony is taking on Spotify by releasing its first Music Unlimited app for iPhone this week.

The Music Unlimited app will launch by the end of the week after debuting more than 12 months ago on Sony devices.

At CES 2012, Sony initially announced the app would be released in summer.

The Music Unlimited app is only iPhone and iPod at the moment. Spotify released its official iPad app last month.

Other devices that currently feature Music Unlimited include Sony Bravia TVs, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Android tablets, and smartphones.

In January 2012, Sony said it had 1 million … Read more

Spotify launches in Australia and New Zealand

Spotify launched its streaming service in Australia and New Zealand today, bringing the total number of countries served to 15.

"Australians are massive music fans and we've created a service that we know they'll love", said co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek in a press release.

As in the US, customers in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to choose between a free account, Unlimited (AU$6.99) or Premium (AU$11.99).

Spotify has also announced localized apps including one from youth broadcaster Triple J and licensing deals with all four major Australian music labels, APRA (… Read more

Sony's Music Unlimited coming to iOS in a 'few weeks'

If you're a fan of Sony Music Unlimited who's been hoping to use the service on your iPhone or iPad -- well, your wait is nearly over.

Sony Entertainment Network chief operating officer Shawn Layden said at the IP&TV World Forum recently that his company plans to launch Music Unlimited on iOS "in the next few weeks," according to TechRadar, which was in attendance at the event.

Music Unlimited is Sony's answer to the countless music-streaming services on the Web. Users have access to over 15 million songs, and can create playlists, get … Read more

Sony's Music Unlimited service lands on Vita

Color me unsurprised that Sony's PlayStation Vita just got its own app for the company's cloud-based Music Unlimited subscription service, since a similar offering for the PSP already exists.

Nonetheless, the first version of the app for Vita features excellent aesthetics with the complement of intuitive and thorough controls (see if you agree with me after watching the demo video below). Album art and channel listings clearly pop on the large OLED screen. I found it easy to scroll around, explore music, and save tracks "from the cloud" to a storage card.

Overall, the experience seems very mature for a service often left out of the music service conversation.

Speaking of saving tunes, the Vita Music Unlimited app supports offline playback through playlist/channel caching. Users of the Android version of the music service can now listen to music offline through Music Unlimited as well. … Read more

Google TV adds gaming with OnLive

Verizon goes all in for 4G, the first Android watch is pleasing on the eyes, and Google TV adds cloud gaming from OnLive.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded, from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

OnLive gaming comes to Google TV It's all 4G for Verizon Sony prototype tablets Sony Music Unlimited coming to iOS New Amazon e-book programing tools. Bing surpasses Yahoo!. The first Android watch. Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Music Unlimited coming to iOS

LAS VEGAS--Music Unlimited, a cloud-based streaming music service, is coming to iOS devices. Is this a sign that Sony is finally ready to offer its vast content ecosystem to devices outside of its own?

The free app will be available for Apple's various iOS devices, including the iPad, this coming summer. It will essentially offer the same functionality as the Android app, and the ability to cache playlists for premium users. Representatives today also noted that Music Unlimited's catalog is now around 15 million songs, after adding content from CD Baby.

Despite the good news, things are … Read more

Sony Walkman gets killer music locker service

Walkman owners now have the ability to transfer any song from Sony's 10 million-track Music Unlimited library to their device with no restrictions, as often as possible.

The only caveat is one must be a premium member (free 30-day trial) of the service, which normally costs $9.99 a month.

The no-advertisement Music Unlimited is available for the NWZ-A860, NWZ-S760, and NWZ-E460 series personal multimedia players. … Read more

Sony's music service adds Pandora-esque feature

A big update landed Monday for users of Sony's Music Unlimited streaming audio service, adding custom artist channels and an array of playlist updates for the PlayStation 3 client.

In our hands-on, the new My Channel feature on the Music Unlimited web site allowed me to create a custom channel by simply inserting an artist's name, as does Pandora. It was simple to setup, so I offered Radiohead and Drake to see how things would play out. According to Sony, the channel is created by "analyzing and categorizing musical traits of more than 10 million tracks" and offering an array of tracks relevant to the inputted artist's sound.

… Read more