Electronics giant Sony has launched a music streaming service in a bid to break Apple’s dominance of the online music business.

Sony’s Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity is a cloud computing-based digital music service that does not involve downloading tracks like Apple’s iTunes.

Instead, a subscription gives users access to a catalogue of about six million songs which can be streamed to Sony’s internet-connected devices like the PlayStation 3, personal computers and Bravia TVs. The service can be synchronised with a user’s existing music files, including iTunes, Sony said.

The service began in the UK and Ireland and will be rolled out in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and the US next year.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.