Sony's new subscription music service swings and misses

The Wall Street Journal's All Things D reports that Sony is launching a new cloud-based music service in the U.K. and Ireland today, and will expand it worldwide in 2011. The service works with Sony's Playstation 3, Vaio PCs and Bravia TVs. It requires a continuous Internet connection, so it doesn't work with any of Sony's digital music players--exactly the types of devices that you'd expect a digital music service to work with. It also doesn't work with any mobile phones, not even those from Sony Ericsson.

A cloud-based music service is a good idea, but one that doesn't have a download option or support "out of the chute" for mobile devices? What were they thinking? I keep asking if there's anyone in charge at Sony who knows what they're doing, and the answer always seems to be no. If you want a portable music solution from Sony, you might want to consider purchasing an old Walkman from eBay.