Sony today revealed PlayStation Music, a new Spotify-powered music service coming to PlayStation 3, 4 and “Xperia smartphones and tablets” this spring. The service will outright replace Music Unlimited, the service that Sony previously implemented across devices, powered by its own enormous music catalog. The news marks the first time Spotify has come to any game console, and is a major coup for Sony’s PlayStation group in the battle for major home entertainment apps on game consoles (Xbox One notoriously got HBO Go first).
PlayStation Music will require a Spotify paid subscription (the “Premium” membership), and enables both playback on the aforementioned devices and the ability to listen to music in the background during games. When the service launches at some point in Spring 2015, it’ll be available in “41 markets around the world.”
Update: The PlayStation Music service will support the “ad-supported free tier” of Spotify as well, a Sony rep told Engadget.
Music Unlimited is, unbelievably, the only option for playing music on the PlayStation 4. You can’t set up a media server, or play MP3s or audio CDs. There’s a free 30-day trial to the subscription service as part of buying a PS4, but it’s a cumbersome hassle if you’re not already a member. And why can’t we play our own music on this super-powerful PC-esque game console?
That was one of the few massive negatives in an otherwise overtly positive console review. Glad to see it’s been sorted! We’ll have more coverage of PlayStation Music as the year rolls on.