Sony to launch Music Unlimited cloud music service in North America

Sony said today it will introduce its Music Unlimited cloud music service in North America in the coming months.

Music streaming services have got a lot of attention in recent months as a force that could make music downloads obsolete. Apple recognized the threat when it bought music streaming service LaLa. Spotify serves music streams in Europe, but it has apparently been stymied because of complex talks with copyright holders.

Sony is in a different position because it owns the rights to a huge library of music. The Music Unlimited service will be available to users on Sony connected devices such as its Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, Vaio PCs and PlayStation 3 consoles. Music Unlimited will be available on music.qriocity.com when it is available.

The service has already launched in the United Kingdom. The service has more than 6 million tracks available, including the complete collection of Elvis Presley hits, said Kaz Hirai, Sony’s top executive for networked products. Sony has designed Music Unlimited to enable social discovery. Users can “like” or “dislike” a song. Once they do that enough, the system can make recommendations to them about songs they might like.