Sony Set to Compete With iTunes

Sony Corp. announced on Wednesday a new digital-music service that would work on Internet-connected Sony TVs, Blu-ray disc players, PlayStation 3's and other devices, entering a competitive space currently dominated by Apple Inc.


Sony Europe's Fujio Nishida, above, said at a trade fair press conference that he expects Music Unlimited to 'change the way we all enjoy our digital music.'

The new music service, called Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, will allow consumers to stream millions of songs over the Internet to their devices. Qriocity is Sony's common platform over which it can deliver digital entertainment services such as video-on-demand or Music Unlimited to consumers through its Internet connected devices.

Music Unlimited, which allows users to stream from a library of music, differs from that of Apple, which sells music on a per title or album basis.

At a press conference at technology trade fair IFA in Berlin, Fujio Nishida, president of Sony Europe, said consumers will have "no need to mange their music files."

"Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity will change the way we all enjoy our digital music," he added.

The service, which will also work on Sony computers as well as others, is slated to launch by the end of this year. The company plans to add support for the service on Sony portable devices in the future, Mr. Nishida said. Details such as pricing would be made available at a later date.

With the launch, Sony hopes to make up some lost ground to Apple, which has dominated the digital music market with its iPod and iPhone devices, as well as its iTunes music store. Apple is the biggest retailer of music in the world.

According to NPD Group Inc., Apple had a 70% share of U.S. digital music sales in the first quarter 2010. That's up from 69% a year earlier.


Sony also on Wednesday added a new line of digital e-readers with touch-screen abilities to its portfolio. Building from last year's line, Sony reduced the size and weight of the new line of readers, and made touch screens available across both products.

The new Reader Pocket Edition comes with a five-inch touch-screen and two gigabytes of onboard memory, and will retail for $179.

The new Reader Touch Edition, which will sell for $229, will be able to play MP3 files and comes with an expansion slot for an additional 32 gigs of memory. By comparison, Amazon.com Inc.'s cheapest Kindle e-reader sells for $139.

In addition to the U.S., Sony said the new line of readers would also be available in several European countries including the U.K, France, Germany and Austria.

In the U.S. only, Sony also introduced a wireless e-reader. The Reader Daily Edition will be able to wirelessly connect to Sony's e-book store through AT&T's 3G network. At $299, it will also have Wi-Fi and basic internet browsing capabilities