Sony dumps Omnifone; hooks up with Spotify

Sony is trying again to make 'paying to stream music through Playstations' a thing, killing off its long-running, long-stalled partnership with Omnifone (Music Unlimited, as you've probably forgotten) and is instead going to bake Spotify into the PSN.

The key difference - besides being a service that people have actually heard of - is that Spotify Free will be part of the deal, too; theoretically, Playstation users might get used to using their devices for streaming music via the free tier and decide it's a good enough experience to shell out to kill the adverts.

In addition, Spotify accounts created elsewhere will be accessible through Playstations.

It's an offering that could well see a shift in where people listen; it's not clear yet that it's going to mean a massive payday for Sony.

Sony's Music Unlimited comes to Japan

The Next Web announces Sony's launch of Music Unlimited in its home market:

Sony has announced the introduction of its Music Unlimited service in Japan, bringing more than 10 million songs which can be listened to across a range of devices through the cloud-based service.

Blimey. Wonder if they'll ever bring that to the UK?

With today’s unveiling, Japan becomes the seventeenth market were Music Unlimited is live, and it marks the end of a long wait for Sony fans in the company’s native country. The Spotify-rivalling service first launched in the UK and Ireland in December 2010, some 18 months ago.

Really? You'd have to say that there's a service that could benefit from a bit more promotion.