Hi everyone – you might’ve noticed that this week, to celebrate the launch of Michael Jackson’s XSCAPE on Sony Entertainment Network on May 13th, we started streaming a selection of the new music exclusively for Music Unlimited subscribers.
This fresh, contemporized and previously unheard work is accessible through our WALKMAN app… so, now’s probably a good a time as any to check in and tell you a bit about the latest series of updates / where we’ve been / where we’re going with Sony’s media applications suite…
Back in August last year we started rolling a series of updates to make it easier for people to find the best Sony entertainment on their phones. We integrated our cloud services, Music and Video Unlimited services into the out-of-the-box / latest software upgrade experience for owners of Xperia smartphones and improved our apps to make them easier to navigate.
We’re always looking at how we can take the experience that one step further. So as of around a fortnight ago, we’re rolling out a further set of updates… in addition to more unified, intuitive interfaces for our WALKMAN, Movies and Album apps that use pinch touch gestures to help users build personalised home screens, we’ll be allowing users to get even more access to the content they love.
The new updates aren’t just about access, they’re also about helping find the best new content and experiencing it in the best possible way. Going forward we’re underpinning our entire entertainment experience with our (new) ”What’s New” app, where users will be given a new homescreen widget, with landing pages featuring the best new music, movies and apps. Zooming in on any of the suggestions will open up new information about the featured content.
Meanwhile there will be a couple of major changes to way people experience their content – for example, the WALKMAN app will also incorporate a new version of our sound enhancement feature – ClearAudio+TM mode. We first showcased the latest iteration back in April as part of our collaboration with Epic Records and the estate of Michael Jackson, when we teamed up with legendary producer L.A. Reid to develop audio tuning that perfectly re-created the centre-seat listening experience in a recording studio.
It’s well worth checking out today’s XSCAPE track “Slave To The Rhythm” – you might recognise it from our brand film… and, of course I’d recommend enjoying via our WALKMAN app on XperiaTM Z2 
The new updates to Sony’s media applications suite provide a clear illustration of Sony’s ongoing commitment to helping users find, access and experience the best content, in the easiest ways. They are the result, not just of the many thousands of development hours that went into their creation, but also of that last quarter-century of heritage that Sony has as leaders in the entertainment space, and we hope that you are as excited to use them as we are to ship them.
If you any have feedback on the apps, please share at our support forum – http://talk.sonymobile.com.
Maiko.
