The Qriocity music service has now launched in seven of the top ten music markets globally.
In the US Sony joins a number of music subscription services many of which struggle to differentiate, with highly similar feature sets and near identical pricing and catalogue size. In this competitive market the current version of Qriocity may struggle to gain significant adoption, even as the market has begun to return to growth. As things stand there are a couple of reasons behind this:

· Unlike Qriocity the established music subscription services, such as Rhapsody, Pandora, Mog, and Microsoft's Zune, all currently offer a portable component by way of PMPs and/or availability on at least one mobile platform. With portability long established as a key driver in the uptake of paid online music consumption, the current version of  Qriocity, appears to be at a competitive disadvantage albeit one that is easily rectified if Sony were to develop mobile apps to take the service on the go.

· Qriocity doesn't have Sony's own platform to itself in the US. On the company's own connected TVs and BD players, Qriocity will also be competing directly with Pandora and Slacker, two services offering a free personalised radio tier, which Qriocity offers as part of its basic subscription tier.

In Australia, Qriocity is entering into a market where online music subscription services have traditionally had difficulty generating mainstream momentum, a prime example being the joint-venture from Microsoft and Sanity - Loadit - which shut in 2009.  While Vodafone MusicStation, which, like Qrioricty, was powered by Omniphone, closed in 2010. The Australian market has yet to see a subscription with the elements that have become a prerequisite for appreciable consumer adoption in the US and Europe: large catalogue and portability. as things stand Qriocity has the former.
Interestingly in Australia Sony will also be competing against Bandit.fm, an online music service launched by Sony Music Australia in 2008. Bandit.fm offers three tiers of service, which collectively offer portability but only on a catalogue of 2m songs:

· 'Music OnTap,' gives users on-demand music on the PC and iOS devices select Sony Ericsson handsets and a one-time download credit of AU$20.00- to be used in the Bandit.fm transactional online music store. It costs AU$ 12.99/month. 

· 'Load & Go', a book club subscription, which requires a three month minimum sign-up at AU$15.99/month and offers AU$40 of download credit per month.

· 'Best of Both Worlds', also requires a 3 month minimum membership, combines 'Music on Tap' streaming offer with AU$20.00 of monthly download credit for AD$15.99/month.