The cloud based music subscription service offered by Sony, Music Unlimited, which is currently available for the PlayStation 3 is also going to be made available for the company’s next portable gaming console which has been code-named Next Generation Portable. Sony has also confirmed to the media that the service will be available for PSP in just a few weeks. Music Unlimited currently offers a total of six million songs. It is available in two variants; the users who subscribe to the basic plan get non-stop music on era-specific and genre-specific channels. Those on the premium service get on-demand access to all the songs on the library and are also offered added channels with more music. The cost of the basic plan is 3.99 pounds while the premium pack costs 9.99 pounds.
The service is a part of Qriocity, whose aim is to link Sony’s entire network enabled consumer electronics products. It also shares the base of the PlayStation Network which is the link between the gaming devices produced by Sony. Sony Network Entertainment’s CEO and executive vice president, Shawn Layden, says that the essence of this service was to free the users from the hassles of having to carry one’s music around on one device as they can now have their music follow them everywhere and access it on devices such as their TVs, PS3s, Blu-ray players, laptops and their PSPs.
He says that such integration is already happening in the case of games for the PSP which a user can pull down using their PS3s. Users can also order other content on their PS3s and then access it on other devices. The concept of asynchronous gaming has already been discussed by Sony when they talked about the link between the upcoming NGP and the PS3.
