At a Sony press event this morning, Sony reps were extremely excited to unveil their latest baby, the Vidzone. The local launch was treated with a great deal of exclusivity; a no picture, no video rule was in place.
With all eyes on screen, the Sony reps ran us through the new service. Yes, Vidzone is another music portal, and it's been concocted as if the world hasn't got a few of these already. At least it's free. But what about those scary file sizes?
A quick Google search reveals that the London based Vidzone (now partnered with Sony) has been around a little longer in the UK with over 1.5 million tracks (a fairly decent count). As usual, we Aussies tend to hear about this stuff at the last minute.
Vidzone is free to access for Playstation users and its selling point over YouTube is higher quality videos, better sound. But how that translates to video bandwidth and data downloads is probably the biggest hurdle for this service.
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| Image source: talkplaystation.com |
The videos (which number in the 1000's, according to local Sony reps) have been optimised for local content and for use within the PS3 interface.
The artist/track search is relatively easy to use and users can create playlists in much the same way they can do it on YouTube. It's a bold move by Sony - they already offer a YouTube portal alternative on the Sony PS3 menu. They're probably hoping the bulk of users are only looking for mainstream acts for high def quality on their large plasma screens, as that's what this and Youtube both provide. YouTube already boast HD video, so Sony has their work cut out for them.
Thankfully, it's not just Sony BMG artists; Vidzone will feature a host of labels, including local independent tracks.
The official website doesn't give much away, though according to our Sony spies, we expect it to hit within the next 3 months.