About three weeks after Spotify released a native iPad app for users on its premium plan, Sony is out with an iOS app for its own competitor: Music Unlimited.
Sony’s Music Unlimited is a subscription service like Spotify or Rdio that gives you endless access to its streaming library of over 15 million songs if you subscribe for a monthly fee. The app is a free download from the App Store and it comes with a 30-day free trial of the Music Unlimited premium plan. After the trial is up, you can choose to continue listening on the basic plan for $3.99 per month or the premium for $9.99 per month. One notable feature of the basic plan is it allows for playback on mobile devices, while comparable $4.99 plans from Spotify and Rdio do not.
Standard features included with the basic plan are unlimited music streaming, an ad-free listening experience for most of the genres, no skip limits, the ability to listen to content already in your locally stored library via matching and access to Sony’s music recommendation engine to discover new songs. For an extra $6 per month, premium subscribers get all of that plus individual song playback on demand, the ability manage playlists from the Music Unlimited web app, access to top charts in each genre, and a few other nifty advantages.
Sony Music Unlimited is available for iPhone and iPod touch. I’m sure an iPad app will arrive eventually unless Sony’s Tablet S miraculously ends up being a runaway success. The app is currently in select countries around the world and is expected to land in the U.S. App Store shortly.