Sony is offering a free 60 trial full membership for their Music Unlimited service to their Playstation 3 members. I've decided to give the service a go and here's my thoughts on it.
MUSIC UNLIMITED
sonyentertainmentnetwork.com
I'm glad Sony got rid of the name Qriocity, which may, or may not, sound like a gay/lesbian dating website. They've rebranded it as Music Unlimited and it's now supported across their Sony platforms, including tablets, walkmen, television, and Playstation 3. Unfortunately, I haven't tested the service on any other device since I don't actually own any other Sony product and I can't really be bothered to remember my password to login from my computer. I'm sure with the single login that my playlist and channels will be synced all across the board.
Music Unlimited works like those "music channels" you get bundled with your cable provider, only the PS3 version show off high resolution graphics. Unfortunately there are a few album artwork that looks terrible blown up.
Audio is played through your television speakers, unless you have some sort of crazy audio setup for your entertainment center. It all depend on your setup, but I suspect because you're streaming audio, that it's not the best highest quality of audio (not that my lame ears could detect anyway). Listening to my TV audio is OK for me, I've no complaint.
What I liked: You have access to a ton of music. We're talking more than 10 million tracks. Genre (displayed as "Channels") and playlist are curated by someone at Sony. I like them for what they are, if you're in the mood for Bollywood or Country & Western/Folk, you can tune in to see what's happening. It's a good way to discover music, but I find that they only pick really popular music (at least in the Indie section).
The other thing I like is that Sony is giving users 60 days to try out the service. Seems really generous, considering the other music services offer nothing or a week trial.
Now for the bad news: everything requires internet connection. Loading up playlist takes what seems minutes to load. Songs sometime needs over 30 seconds to buffer. Connection to Music Unlimited may be rejected when you first launch it a couple of time. Artwork for songs and albums are slow to load. Basically it comes down to network issues and that's going to be a problem for me (because newsflash: if I have trouble now, I'll have trouble in the future).
Suggestions: Perhaps let me upload or add my own music to my library. I actually own a lot of obscure/old music that it not available on Sony's network. I would also like to hear Music Unlimited in the background while I'm browsing the web or playing a game (it doesn't multi-task on the PS3 and I don't think it's possible).
The Music Unlimited service works like any all-you-can-eat music service, such as Zune or RDio or Spotify. The thing that sets them apart is that you have it on the PS3 (which is the center of my television/entertainment center). Yes, I know Zune is available for the Xbox, but that costs an additional $10 for Xbox Gold, so you're paying double the cost. And speaking of cost, Music Unlimited is comparable to other services, with a bare-bones version for $3.99 a month, to a full version for $9.99. The differences is that for $10, you get Premium Channels, unlimited playback, your library, and the ability to create & edit playlists. Basically $4 won't get you very far. If I had to pay, would I do so? Probably not, because I'm a cheapskate. I feel for that amount of money, I could be getting Netflix or buy/own an album. Or better yet, for $4 a month, I could be a PS Plus member and get one free game a month. There's plenty of options to spend my cash.
MUSIC UNLIMITED
sonyentertainmentnetwork.com
I'm glad Sony got rid of the name Qriocity, which may, or may not, sound like a gay/lesbian dating website. They've rebranded it as Music Unlimited and it's now supported across their Sony platforms, including tablets, walkmen, television, and Playstation 3. Unfortunately, I haven't tested the service on any other device since I don't actually own any other Sony product and I can't really be bothered to remember my password to login from my computer. I'm sure with the single login that my playlist and channels will be synced all across the board.
My Library Country & Folk Channel Artist Biography |
Audio is played through your television speakers, unless you have some sort of crazy audio setup for your entertainment center. It all depend on your setup, but I suspect because you're streaming audio, that it's not the best highest quality of audio (not that my lame ears could detect anyway). Listening to my TV audio is OK for me, I've no complaint.
What I liked: You have access to a ton of music. We're talking more than 10 million tracks. Genre (displayed as "Channels") and playlist are curated by someone at Sony. I like them for what they are, if you're in the mood for Bollywood or Country & Western/Folk, you can tune in to see what's happening. It's a good way to discover music, but I find that they only pick really popular music (at least in the Indie section).
The other thing I like is that Sony is giving users 60 days to try out the service. Seems really generous, considering the other music services offer nothing or a week trial.
Now for the bad news: everything requires internet connection. Loading up playlist takes what seems minutes to load. Songs sometime needs over 30 seconds to buffer. Connection to Music Unlimited may be rejected when you first launch it a couple of time. Artwork for songs and albums are slow to load. Basically it comes down to network issues and that's going to be a problem for me (because newsflash: if I have trouble now, I'll have trouble in the future).
Suggestions: Perhaps let me upload or add my own music to my library. I actually own a lot of obscure/old music that it not available on Sony's network. I would also like to hear Music Unlimited in the background while I'm browsing the web or playing a game (it doesn't multi-task on the PS3 and I don't think it's possible).
The Music Unlimited service works like any all-you-can-eat music service, such as Zune or RDio or Spotify. The thing that sets them apart is that you have it on the PS3 (which is the center of my television/entertainment center). Yes, I know Zune is available for the Xbox, but that costs an additional $10 for Xbox Gold, so you're paying double the cost. And speaking of cost, Music Unlimited is comparable to other services, with a bare-bones version for $3.99 a month, to a full version for $9.99. The differences is that for $10, you get Premium Channels, unlimited playback, your library, and the ability to create & edit playlists. Basically $4 won't get you very far. If I had to pay, would I do so? Probably not, because I'm a cheapskate. I feel for that amount of money, I could be getting Netflix or buy/own an album. Or better yet, for $4 a month, I could be a PS Plus member and get one free game a month. There's plenty of options to spend my cash.