While playing on similar turf as Spotify, Rdio and Grooveshark, Sony’s Music Unlimited is aimed squarely (for now) at the living room. If you’re using it on a Playstation 3, TV or BluRay player, Music Unlimited makes perfect sense. The question is whether there’s a big enough market of people willing to listen to music in their living rooms for the service, which costs £9.99 per month after a 30-day trial, to make long-term economic sense for Sony and the music rightsholders in the long term.
Perhaps Music Unlimited is all about perception. Discard the interface flaws (which could well be ironed out in the future) and think of this as a music-focused complement to the streaming movies offered by Netflix or LoveFilm on Sony hardware, and Music Unlimited starts to find a place in the world.