Yesterday, via PlayStation’s official blog, Sony’s VP Eric Lempel released an official statement discussing the end of Music Unlimited and the release of PlayStation Music, with Spotify the official partner. This is massive news for the PlayStation world, as the joys of Spotify will soon be available on their consoles whilst playing gamers, allow gamers to “soundtrack your gaming sessions with your favourite songs”.
Sony began Music Unlimited in 2010 and today has over 22 million songs. However, Sony admitted defeat to streaming rivals Spotify as they become partners in musical crime. This will no doubt be a strong partnership as users will have access to integrated software designed by two key players in their respective fields. After all, why not let the experts do what they are best at? Jack of all, master of none and all that…
Spotify boasts over 15 million paying subscribers and over 60 million active users over a 30 day period, numbers which Sony simply could not compete with. On top of those numbers, Spotify has around 30 million songs within their library, an impressive 8 million more than Music Unlimited. These numbers will surely see further increase now as the app will be preinstalled on Sony devices, meaning less decision making is required to entice potential users.
There is no doubt that this can be a successful partnership for both Sony and Spotify as they follow the trend set by other large companies. Take Apple’s purchase of Beats for example, it would appear companies solely dedicated to music streaming enjoy far more success than others trying to juggle multiple businesses in multiple markets.
Music Unlimited will take off its headphones and switch off the power on 25th March 2015 and be replaced by the new PlayStation Music soon after, however, as of yet, there has been no mention with regards to release date or pricing, but Music Unlimited begins at £4.99 and Spotify at £9.99.