Just in time for Christmas — if you’re going abroad, that is — Sony on Wednesday unveiled a digital music subscription service featuring a catalog of 6 million songs from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI Music and Sony Music Entertainment.
For now, the service is only available in the U.K. and Ireland, but Sony said it plans to expand it to the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy and Spain next year. Called Music Unlimited, the service costs 3.99 euros a month for the basic version, which streams ad-free radio much like Pandora. A premium version that lets listeners play songs on demand costs 9.99 euros a month.
Subscribers can listen via Sony devices that are connected to the Internet, including the PlayStation 3 game console, Blu-ray players, Vaio computers and smart phones. While the service can work on cellphones that use Google’s Android operating system, it is currently not compatible with Apple’s iPhones.
