1 September 2010 Last updated at 12:33 ET

Sony rolls out rival to iTunes

Sony has launched a new music and video download service as it gears up to challenge Apple's iTunes.

The announcement, made at the IFA technology fair in Berlin, was timed to coincide with an Apple media event in the US.

The cloud-based service will be available on PlayStation 3s, Bravia TVs, Blu-Ray players and Sony's personal computers.

Initially it will offer movies. Music will be added at the end of the year.

Sony's online services platform Qriocity has offered video-on-demand in the US since April this year but will now be available in Europe.

The Music Unlimited service, due at the end of the year, will give users access to millions of songs.

"Via Qriocity, Sony will deliver a variety of digital entertainment content and services... including video, music, game applications and e-books over time," said Fujio Nishida, president of Sony Europe.

It is not the first time that Sony has tried to break into the digital music market.

In 2004 it launched an online music download service in the US, called Connect.

It did not prove popular with consumers and Sony pulled the plug on it in 2007.

Commenting on the new service, Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan said it was a "necessary strategic move".

"It has done a wise thing launching a multi-media rather than just a music service. Apple has the glue of iTunes but Sony doesn't have this and it has recognised the need to join the dots between all its disparate devices," he said.

In Australia and New Zealand, Sony has been trialling another music service called bandit.fm, which allows users to stream unlimited music for a fixed cost.

It is rumoured that Amazon is also about to enter the movie and music streaming fray, with its own download service.

Details of Sony's latest service and the costs will be announced later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11151844

this is quite a numer of game platforms now..

playstation Home now for indie developer's

Move

PSN

Blu-Ray releases

and now Qriocity

add in Android OS in the TV or external Box

that is quite a number of game platforms that can be used for developer's to make games.

that will work on the PS3 that's quite a number of games

If Sony's service is comparable to Netflix and such and if they offer it for PSN I'm down.

how do you pronounce "Qriocity"??

curosity

Sonys is stupid sometimes.

Apple has one service for all its content. iTunes. its simple and easy to remember and its accross all their platforms.

MS has started to do the samething with Live. At first they were more fractured when Zune launched, but now its coming down to one single service in Live and it ties all their platforms including the new mobile OS.

Sony has made a brilliant move with Android that is said to become the backend of all their devices. So, why not just upgrade PSN to become their single offering for content of all types. It makes FAR more sense and also keeps things simple and comfortable for their users. Having all these branches is just confusing and creates additional costs for the company as a whole.

Again another case of left hand ignoring what the right hand is doing.

MS hasn't done it as cleanly as most people would like, though.  Windows Live is full of features and services that, if ever properly integrated, would be second to none.  In fact, they are the closest of all of these giant corps to getting it right.  But they are not there.

Sony had to do something because of ITunes and Zune, but they really don't have a mobile platform that it can be fully integrated into outside of the PSP.  That's not good enough, unfortunately, and will make it harder for this to find mainstream success unless they do.

As for Android, that is all just a one source rumor that, at this point, is pure fanfic.  Its rumored that Google will launch its own music service later this year.  In all honesty, why would they need Sony for this?

if you call Sony CEO's putting further investment for Android os Fanfic than that's your opinion , but from the Sony CEO's themselves to the head of Sony software and development Android OS is a software that sony is backing company wide.

This is done so that the other devices, like laptops, dvd/blu-ray players etc can access the service.  You don't want to enter into something called the "Playstation Network" when you're buying things from your blu-ray player, or what have you because it will create confusion.

I dislike itunes strongly. Hopefully Sonys program will be easier to use and will not make people sync everything. Whats wrong with putting a file in a folder?