Sony Music Unlimited, Isn’t.

Last week, Sony released an Android app for its streaming music service, Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity (not the shortest name in the industry, that’s for sure). Until now the service has been available only on computers and Sony internet-connected devices, like the PS3, but the new app puts it in direct competition with a wide variety of competitors, from streaming-only sevices like Pandora Radio and Rhapsody, to locker services like Amazon Cloud Player and Music Beta by Google (seriously, what’s with these names)

The new app opens on a music discovery page. As interesting as that makes your initial options, it may actually be Sony’s first mistake. Of all the streaming apps I tested, Music Unlimited had the slowest startup time, tying Pandora at 11 seconds. Unlike Pandora, Sony’s app isn’t starting the music when it’s done loading. You end up just sitting there waiting to be able to start choosing music.

After the process is finished, you’re presented with a section for Channels and a What’s New area that displays four titles from the global top chart and eight new releases. There’s no accompanying text, so unless you recognize the album covers, the What’s New section is pretty random.

Channels are random playlists of music, tailored to the user’s preferences. Instead of Pandora’s system of choosing a song or artist as the basis of custom channels, Music Unlimited has four types of predefined channels. You can choose Genre (with selections like Jazz, Rock, or R&B), Era (a selection of decades starting with the 1950s), SenseMe (mood based, like Energetic, Upbeat, or Night), or Premium (a top 100 version of Genre, only available to users who pay for the more expensive premium account). Inside Premium is also a Favorites channel, which is a collection of all the songs you’ve given a positive rating in other channels.

Sony isn’t just providing a streaming radio service. They also offer the option of streaming your own music, and music of your choice from their collection of over seven million songs. Install their Music Sync desktop application and it matches your iTunes or Windows Media Player library or any folder of your choice, allowing you to stream any of those songs without having to upload first. This is a significant advantage over Google and Amazon, which can take days or even weeks to upload a large collection. Unfortunately, Sony provides no way to access music that is not in their library. With 7 million songs that may not sound like a problem, but Sony actually has the smallest library of any of the paid services I’m aware of. Amazon, iTunes, and even Rhapsody (not exactly the first music service people think of these days) all have significantly more. So, if you’ve got a lot of music from indie labels, there’s a good chance you’ll be missing some of your tunes.

When your music is synced, you can swipe left on your android app and you’ll see My Library. Four buttons appear up top for Playlists, Artists, Albums, and Songs, like you’d expect from any music player. Below that, Newly Added to My Library and You Might Like. Again, album covers only. You also search for music, and adding a song or album to your library is a single click, which is nice.

There are some odd disconnects within the Android app that diminish the user experience in subtle but significant ways. For example, Channels has an option to dislike a song, which presumably affects what songs come up in the future. But disliking it will not automatically skip the player to the next song. I never realized how much I appreciated that little tweak in Pandora until I saw what a player without it was like. Seriously, Sony, why would I want to keep hearing a song I just told you I don’t like?

There’s also no way to like a song in your own library or via search and have it show up in your Favorites channel. This one seems like a no-brainer to me, but apparently the only way to get something to show up in that favorites list is to have it come up randomly in another Channel first.

Drivers who use their phones for navigation may also run into a problem when they discover that the Music Unlimited App has no landscape mode. Not normally a big deal, but an odd omission in an app that is so polished visually.

Music Unlimited’s biggest limitation, however, is the fact that it is a streaming-only service. There is absolutely no form of offline caching available. The app can’t even play music off your SD card. This separates it neatly from every single competitor except streaming radio apps like Pandora. Even Rhapsody and tiny startup mSpot got this part right. If you go into a subway, you want your music to keep going and Sony hasn’t offered a single way to do that.

Sony’s gone with a two level pricing structure for this service. The Basic plan is $3.99 a month and comes with some pretty severe limitations. Aside from the lack of Premium Channels, you also can’t search for music (if you want to add something to your library, it has to come in via Music Sync on your PC) or create playlists within the app (though your iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists will sync). At this level, you’ll get a lot more for your money with a $3 Pandora One account and one of the locker services (mSpot and Amazon give you 5 GB free, and if you have an invite, Google offers up to 25,000 songs free).

For Sony’s Premium plan, including all the features listed here, you’re talking $9.99 a month. That’s the same price as Rhapsody, so if you’re looking for an unlimited streaming service, it’s a fair price. Just remember, you can’t take your library with you if you leave or Sony closes down the service.