As prophesied by the Nikkei, Sony's Music Unlimited service went live in Japan today, bringing the joys of premium streaming apps to the country. Japan has been largely left out of the party until now, with services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora yet to make their presence known. Music Unlimited is a pretty robust first offering, though, with a library of over 10 million songs from all major labels and "leading" independents, and an app that's available for Android, iOS, PS Vita, PlayStation 3, Mac, and PC.
Interested Japanese customers will have to pay a little more to get on board, however — the premium monthly fee is ¥1,480 (around $18.55) next to $9.99 and £9.99 in the US and UK respectively. Hulu launched its video service in Japan last year at the same price with the same advantage of being first to market, but quickly ended up reducing its subscription fee. We'll have to wait and see how the Japanese market reacts to Sony's offering, but for now you can get a free 30-day trial of the service.