Sony partners with Spotify and shutters Sony Music Unlimited

Sony partners with Spotify and shutters Sony Music Unlimited

In a surprising turn of events, Sony has announced a partnership with Spotify for the relaunch of its music streaming offering on the PlayStation Network. 

The service will be called simply PlayStation Music and will be accessible from 41 countries at launch. 

The partnership will allow PlayStation Music users to use their PlayStation payment options to subscribe to Spotify Premium. Spotify's tracks will then be available to those users directly on Playstation Music and - most importantly for gamers - the app will be able to run in the background as they play. 

This is an interesting deal because it stops just short of being a white labelling of the Spotify service but it’s remarkably close to being one. 

At the same time, Sony will shutter its Sony Music Unlimited service, which was powered by Omnifone and was available in 19 territories worldwide. 

The partnership makes complete sense and the PlayStation’s mainstream reach could be a fantastic catalyst for the growth of Spotify’s Premium subscriber base. 

(Andrea Leonelli)