Hi, I’m Mark and I work over @SonyEurope on the Consumer Electronics side of Sony’s business (BRAVIA TVs, Cyber-shot cameras, VAIO PCs etc). I’m blogging for @PlayStationEU because, as some of you might hopefully be aware, Sony has recently unveiled its new cloud-based music streaming service: Music Unlimited. It’s an exciting venture for us as it allows you to stream music on a range of Sony networked products, as well as through your PS3 (and any PC).
Last weekend, the team behind Music Unlimited visited the MIDEM 2011 conference in Cannes. If you haven’t heard of MIDEM before, it is an annual music industry conference where movers and shakers come together to talk about issues being faced, unveil new products and ideas, and showcase forthcoming bands in music in 2011.
Sony was there to announce that Music Unlimited, which went live in the UK in December, is now available to those of you based in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. President of Sony Network Entertainment, Tim Schaaff, who is the main man behind Music Unlimited, also flew over from California to engage in some of the key debates of the digital elements of the activity. Following an interesting discussion around the future of music in the cloud (featuring Sony Music’s Thomas Hesse, more of him later), Tim took to the stage to be interviewed about Music Unlimited and the Qriocity platform in general. MIDEM have the full interview on their YouTube channel, and we live-tweeted the conversation on the Sony Europe Twitter stream:
The following day started off with a very special visitor to the Sony booth at MIDEM – the French minister for Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand. He had expressed in interest in the service and wanted to see how it worked, so he was given a private demonstration of Music Unlimited by one its developers. Let’s hope the network access in the Minister’s office allows him to stream his favourite tracks at work!
Next was a very special Q&A put together by Sony, which brought the major players from the four major record labels into the same room to discuss Music Unlimited and music streaming in general. Alongside Tim Schaaff and Shawn Layden (both from SNE), we had: Mark Pibe, global head of digital music at EMI; Michael Nash, EVP of digital strategy and business development at Warner Music Group; Rob Wells, president of the global digital business at Universal Music Group; Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony Music Entertainment.
Again, the event was live tweeted by Sony Europe, and the MIDEM blog has a transcript.
Hopefully for those of you into music and thinking about the future of music online, these discussions are interesting and stimulating. We’re also pleased to let you know that you can currently enjoy a free 30 day trial of Music Unlimited’s premium service – head over to http://www.qmusic.com to find out more.
26 CommentsAdd Yours
1
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:04 pm by Roxas598
Any chance we could see an andriod app for this?
I’m a subscriber from day 1 and love the service but an app for my phone would just make it perfect (with an offline mode of course)
2
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:05 pm by TalllPaul
Currently enjoying Qriocity premium here, great program. However I didn’t know that I could stream from the browser on any PC, don’t know whether I missed it or it just isn’t said anywhere? :S
Still great service and one i shall be keeping after the 30 day trial expires. Would be 1000000+ awesome if there was an iPhone app (like the Spotify one). Look forward to see what else Qriocity brings as I heard in the US it has films also.
3
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:08 pm by TalllPaul
EDIT:
Maybe it could be included to sync with the official Playstation App?
4
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:10 pm by HiddenAway
Is the PSP going to get the service as well? I notice it’s already released for the PS3 – even though the PSP had the icon first
5
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:22 pm by VanCorc
Will this be launched in Sweden as well?
6
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:25 pm by PEYJ
Yep, any chance of seeing this outside the Exclusive club of Playstation Land?
7
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:45 pm by matthewkh
1) I can listen to Spotify basic for free. With the occasional annoying advert admittedly, but still use it regularly.
I’d happily switch to Qriocity, if you ran an occasional commercial.
(or put a Spotify application on PS3?)
2) I cannot access this on my PS3 (same problem with Mubi and PSN video store) because I currently live in Spain using my UK account. The application (for both) refuses to acknowledge this even though a Spanish version is/will be available. I cannot change my default language and location. Disappointing.
8
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 2:53 pm by Carl-G
‘Music Unlimited’ name sounds better than the ‘Qriocity’ name, i think;)
9
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 3:10 pm by btz
Hi Mark! “Qriocity is not available in your country.” hahaha.
Oh and its way to expensive.
10
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 3:33 pm by almighty-slayer
Awesome! I love Qriocity, it’s a brilliant thing to have
Great to be able to switch between PC and PS3 and seemlessly stream music. Great idea, and well done 
11
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 3:35 pm by almighty-slayer
And yeah it’d be awesome to see an Android app for this.
12
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 4:03 pm by smokeypsd
I would really like to at least have a approx, release for Australia. As exciting as these things are, it does not bode well for the future for things like the NPG if Australia still can’t get things off the ground fast, or not at all.
13
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 4:05 pm by ATIPdante
I got this and i must say it is very good, hope it gets expanded for films as well that would be even beter
oh yeah it would also be amazing on the NPG or psp2 cant wait for that!
14
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 4:05 pm by weezereire
A great service but way too expensive! Here in Ireland, eircom (ISP) provide the exact same service(Music Hub) for FREE! The User interface is much nicer too and they are bringing out apps for it.
So any Irish people here then make the switch and save yourself 12 euro a month.
=w=
15
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 4:06 pm by devilwithoutfear
I did’t read anymore after seeing GB only
16
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 4:08 pm by Ursinho
So… this isnt anouncement of yet another zombie shmup afterall? man, first impressions… i guess music industry is getting old
17
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 5:12 pm by Skookie30
I HATE it i would love to SUB just like LOVEFILM it not PSN wallet friendly as it ask me for card details that i haven’t Got big Fat fail.
& No response as uselessly it figures
18
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 5:51 pm by Mark Wainwright
Hi all, thanks for your feedback on the post! Just wanted to answer a couple of the questions you have about Music Unlimited:
@Roxas598 (and others): we will be making Music Unlimited available on a number of other devices in the future, including Android phones. Watch this space for more details.
@Hiddenaway: see above, PSP is also included in this list
@VanCorc (and others): Music Unlimited will be rolled out to other European countries in due course, again we will keep you updated.
@smokeypsd: Australia and New Zealand will have access to Music Unlimited before the end of 2011. Again, we will keep you updated.
Thanks
19
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 8:23 pm by whoismilan
I new before I even checked that this would not be available for me.
Good job, sir from Sony EUROPE <- includes areas other than UK
20
Posted on 31 January, 2011 at 8:34 pm by NeonSkull
so can I save an off-line play list to my ps3 and use that music in games that support playing your own music like Gran Turismo5?
If we can I’ll cancel my spotify right now and sign up.
21
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 3:25 am by kool-chris93
Fantastic video, great insight. Seems like a nice genuine guy.
22
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 8:41 am by cakeforme288
Will this unlimited thing be on PSP? im sick of having a useless icon sitting there doing nothing
23
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 10:24 am by didzej1
Any chance we’re going to get it in Poland? Like, before the PS4 launch?
24
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 2:39 pm by Philip99
Will this site ever be updated: http://ps-devices.qriocity.com/psp/en/ ?
25
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 3:24 pm by StefNighthawk
@Mark Wainwright : Music Unlimited will be rolled out to other European countries in due course, again we will keep you updated.
Is that the same due course as the movie store and the comics store?
26
Posted on 1 February, 2011 at 4:54 pm by SmoggyPhil
Why pay for music when you can use P2P downloading?
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