Sony has launched their own challenge to Apple’s iTunes this week, dubbed Qriocity, which will be an unlimited, cloud-based music service available via the PlayStation 3 and other Internet-connected devices such as HDTVs and Blu-ray players.
The service will go live by the end of the year, giving users a chance to stream millions of songs in the cloud.
Besides the PS3, the service will be available on Sony portable media devices, Sony Blu-ray players, Sony home-theater systems, 2010 Web-enabled Bravia HDTVs and Windows PCs.
“We are excited to offer our customers high quality, cloud-based entertainment experiences across many of Sony’s network-enabled devices,” says Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony’s networked products and services group. “Services ‘powered by Qriocity’ will revolutionize the way that users play, listen, watch, share, communicate, learn, discover and create their digital entertainment content.”
Sony has said it will expand the Qriocity “Video on Demand” service which launched in April in the U.S. to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. in the fall.
The video service has content from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, MGM, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros.
Result for: music
Yoko Ono, the widow of the late John Lennon has said this week that negotiations between Apple and The Beatles are still at a standstill, so don’t expect the popular catalog to hit iTunes or other MP3 stores anytime soon.
The band remains one of the few to not go legally digital, instead selling physical CDs like they did last year, with the catalog remastered.
Apple Corps (not to be confused with iTunes owner Apple), the group’s holding company still cannot come to terms with the EMI Group, the label which licenses the Beatles’ recordings.
Says Ono: “[Apple CEO] Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy. There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out. “Don’t hold your breath … for anything.”
Apple Corps is jointly owned by Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and Olivia Harrison, widow of former member George Harrison.
While the company may seem closed off to new digital ideas, the band’s music was reissued on CD last year, is available via the “Beatles: Rock Band” video game and through the Cirque du Soleil “Love” stage show.
Result for: music
Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the syndicate of technology, cable and entertainment companies has introduced their long awaited cloud-based digital locker today, dubbing the service Ultraviolet.
Consumers would create an Ultraviolet account which would allow them to purchase movies, TV shows and music and access it from any web-connected device like HDTVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles.
DECE consists of Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Fox Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Universal, Netflix, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba, and Warner Bros.
The group expects to launch the service later this year, and any device manufacturer, entertainment producer or other company “that want to offer the UltraViolet service would have to license its technology specifications from the consortium,” says IW.
Licensing requirements will be “as light as possible,” however.
The two notable names missing from the list are Disney (who is creating a rival system; Keychest) and Apple, which already has iTunes as a “digital locker” for content played back on iPods, iPads, and iPhones.
