Sony adds 320 kbps AAC support to Music Unlimited service

30 Jan 13 17:22 by in category Music, Uncategorized

Sony has added high quality audio streams to its Music Unlimited service. Subscribers to the service are now able to stream music in 320 kbps AAC high fidelity audio. In able to make use of it, users have to enable the option in the settings menu. By adding the option for 320 kbps AAC the service now offers the same quality streams as Spotify.

Spotify streams 320 kbps music for paid accounts, free users get 160 kbps. Only Spotify and Music Unlimited now feature these high quality stream, competing services like Rhapsody and Last FM offer streams of up to 192 kpbs. Music Unlimited offers more than 18 million tracks and the high quality streams are for now available on  Android smartphones and tablets, the Playstation 3 and PCs. It’s likely that Sony will add support for more devices later.

Sony offers a free 14 day trial, after that the service is $4.99 for streaming to the PC, Mac and Playstation 3. For $9.99 also portable and home entertainment devices are supported.

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5 Comments on Sony adds 320 kbps AAC support to Music Unlimited service

TSJnachos117
Posts: 328
Posted on: 31 Jan 13 02:17
As evil as Sony is, I certainly would like to see other services should follow this example. Or better yet, offer the music in a lossless format, such as FLAC or ALAC. That would be nice, but since most people aren't audiophiles (at least I don't think they are), I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

At the very least, I think it's time we start moving away from the MP3 format. Seriously, the standard is almost as old as I am! Standards like AAC and Vorbis have MP3 beat by a long shot.
debro
Posts: 13338
Posted on: 31 Jan 13 13:41
320kb/s AAC is not mp3

Mp3 is fine for portables, and I agree, everyone is carrying around more computing power in their pockets than we had desktop processor power from 10 years ago, and those were more than adequate for aac.

320kb/s is 320kb/s. Encoding music in mp3 (now) could be likened to encoding our blurays in mpeg1 ... much the same really, since mp3 is mpeg1 layer 3.
MerlinWerks
Posts: 25
Posted on: 31 Jan 13 15:52
Hmmm, unless something has changed recently you get 320kps mp3 from MOG.

$4.99/mo for PC streaming
$9.99/mo for mobile streaming including downloads for offline listening
FreqNasty_RiseS
Posts: 165
Posted on: 01 Feb 13 02:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by TSJnachos117 View Post
As evil as Sony is, I certainly would like to see other services should follow this example. Or better yet, offer the music in a lossless format, such as FLAC or ALAC. That would be nice, but since most people aren't audiophiles (at least I don't think they are), I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

At the very least, I think it's time we start moving away from the MP3 format. Seriously, the standard is almost as old as I am! Standards like AAC and Vorbis have MP3 beat by a long shot.
Streaming FLAC would take up far more bandwidth and storage for Sony, increasing their costs which they would probably pass onto the consumer. I agree FLAC is nice and my choice for music stored on hard drives but 320kb/s AAC is good enough for streaming.
TSJnachos117
Posts: 328
Posted on: 04 Feb 13 23:46
True, and also FLAC would consume a lot of bandwidth for consumers, too, possibly too much for some users to do in real-time. Vorbis is still a good option, IMHO, but at these rates most users would most not be able to tell the difference.
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Sony adds 320 kbps AAC support to Music Unlimited service

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