Music streaming services like Spotify, Rhapsody, and Rdio are set to face yet another competitor on iOS, as Sony prepares to make its own service available to the iPhone and iPad. The company’s COO, Shawn Layden, has confirmed that Music Unlimited will be making its way to the App Store “in the next few weeks.”
Music Unlimited is only available on two mobile platforms right now, and that’s Android and the company’s own PS Vita handheld. But Sony is lining up iOS as the third, and it won’t stop there. During an interview with TechRadar at the IP&TV World Forum, Layden said:
We will be launching our music service on iOS in the next few weeks. We want to be on as many devices for users who want to be part of Music Unlimited.
TechRadar also probed Layden on Sony’s relationship with Apple, and asked whether the company might consider withdrawing its music from the iTunes Store in a bid to encourage users to sign up to Music Unlimited instead. As you may have expected, that’s not part of the Japanese company’s plans:
Sony music is still be [sic] part of iTunes — there is no change in that.
We have video and music services be we also provide a base for Netflix and BBC iPlayer [on the PlayStation platform] — we accept that people want what they want, and we are in a position to offer this.
Like Spotify and those other music streaming services, Music Unlimited is a subsciption service that offers over 10 million tracks, with prices starting at $3.99 per month.
