Sony Music Unlimited Sees PlayStation 4 Bump

Eliot Van Buskirk/Evolver

Sony Music Unlimited isn’t just another music subscription, in part because it lets you choose the music that plays in PlayStation 4 videogames, which, alone, will be worth the price of admission ($5/ or $10/month) to some gamers, especially because all of that music can play on computers, phones, and/or tablets, just like any other on-demand music subscription.

We anticipated that the launch of the PlayStation 4 last November would boost the use of Sony Music Unlimited, because it ships with it, and indeed, that’s what happened.

Sony shared some details with Evolver.fm indicating that the PS4 did boost usage of Sony Music Unlimited between its November launch and now, in the following ways:

• Subscriber growth “more than doubled and sustained this momentum.”
• The service streamed 50 percent more music than it did previously.
• The percentage of Sony Music Unlimited users accessing the service on the PlayStation 4 increased between November and December, from 29 percent of all playback to 38 percent.
• Sony Music Unlimited streamed over 7 million hours of music since the launch of the PlayStation 4.

Sony plans to launch the PlayStation 4 in Japan on February 22, when it expects another boost in usage, but already, this looks like a good indication that gamers are willing to at least consider paying for music that integrates tightly with their gaming consoles and also their third-party (i.e. non-Sony-only) phones.