Curious About Qriocity? Sony Debuts Music Service

Sony launched a new music service in the U.S. today. “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” is a cloud-based, digital music service offering about 6 million songs from the catalogs of Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI Music, as well as numerous indies and publishers.
The service is ad-free and runs on a monthly subscription basis. The Basic plan is $3.99/month and Premium is $9.99.
One thing Qriocity has going for it is that it is designed to work with existing Sony hardware, including certain Bravia TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, PlayStation3, Vaio computers, and portable devices. It is also expected to work with third-party portable devices including the Android platform.
Many of these connections play into the company’s desire to capture in-home listeners, where it says more than 70 percent of consumers listen, but are underserved in terms of digital music.
Qriocity essentially works as a customizable streaming station offering personalized channels. The Premium subscription plan enables users to listen to songs on demand, and create personal playlists. The system tailors stations based on “like or dislike” song ratings, and analyzing the user’s existing music collection. Sony claims, “the more you listen, the more uniquely personalized your music channels become.”
Users can also synchronize their existing music files from other media players including iTunes.
Qriocity was already available in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Today it also launched in Australia and New Zealand.