Sony Corp and the world’s major record labels, are starting their own music streaming service in the US this quarter that will challenge Apple Inc’s iTunes, after years of letting start-ups license their artists.
“Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity,” which Sony unveiled in September, started in the UK and Ireland in December and in France, Germany, Italy and Spain this weekend. It’s available on Sony’s Playstation 3 game console, Blu-ray Disc player, Bravia televisions, personal computers, and will be on smartphones using Google Inc’s Android operating systems.
“We took a long time looking at music before jumping in,” Tim Schaaff, the chief executive officer of Sony Network Entertainment, the division of Sony overseeing Music Unlimited, said at the MIDEM music industry conference in Cannes, France this weekend.
Music Unlimited, which has more than 6 million songs, lets Sony Music Entertainment and partners Universal Music Group, EMI Music and Warner Music Group effectively cut out middle men and gives them more control over revenue. The music industry has long struggled to come up with alternatives to combat counter steep drops in number of CDs being purchased and rampant piracy.
The move also helps record companies take on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which in February reported its 10 billionth song download. ITunes, introduced in 2001, is the largest destination for buying music in the US, bigger than Walmart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc, according to researcher NPD Group Inc.
Sony’s Music Unlimited will, like iTunes, require a payment to access songs and add them to personal libraries. While iTunes allows users to access downloaded songs offline, streaming services require a user be connected to an online device.
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Music Unlimited will rival streaming and download services already on the market, including cloud-based sites like Spotify, whose majority of users access the service for free in return for sitting through ads.
The path Music Unlimited is taking is strewn with shuttered streaming services, including Apple’s Lala service and most recently British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc’s Sky Songs.
“There have been a lot of dead bodies along the way,” Schaaff said.
Sony’s service stands a better chance of survival, he said, because the number of connected Sony devices in the marketplace will be about 350 million in the next few years.
Sony unit Gracenote Inc is providing technology for the service that will recommend music to users based on their tastes and listening habits.