iTunes has a new rival made by Sony

Sony has taken on a hard quest: they challenged Apple in a battle for a piece of the music and video download market. The Japanese company has announced its own music and video download service at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin.

Sony’s new, cloud-based music service will be available for the company’s own multimedia products, such as the PlayStation 3, Bravia TV sets, Sony’s computers and Blu-ray players. The service will initially offer movies to its users, later it will broaden its offer and add music as well.

Qriocity has already been launched in the US, back in April, but now it extends to Europe. Sony promises to deliver a variety of digital entertainment content, including, but not limited to, video, music, e-books and games.

This is not Sony’s first try to break into this market – the company has tried to break Apple’s supremacy by launching their own music download service called Connect back in 2004. The service has survived for three years, until finally Sony has pulled the plug.

Sony is not the only company trying to grab a piece of the music download market: Amazon is said to prepare a similar service of its own.