Sony proclaims PS3's VidZone a success

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 26 October, 2010

More than half a billion music vids delivered.

Sony has hailed the PlayStation 3's free music video streaming service VidZone as a resounding success.

More than half a billion music video streams have been delivered to more than 3.7 million people. Currently there are 30,000 music related videos on the service. All this has been achieved in just over a year, Sony noted.

How has VidZone become so popular? "The VidZone team credits the service's enormous popularity to the enhanced technical proficiency recently introduced over a JAVA and SQL framework promoting an effective and flexible speed of service coupled with a diverse selection of content on offer covering thousands of Independent labels as well as Major record labels," said Sony. Bet you're glad we asked.

In April Sony launched VidZone TV on PlayStation 3 with over 100 pre-programmed, telly-style music channels to watch for free.

The idea was to do away with the need to spend time building playlists. You simply pick a themed-channel - seventies, eighties, hip-hop, dance, etc. - and let it play.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Widge #1 2 years ago

    A wonderful freebie, completely useless to me as I am a bit of a niche music control freak, but a cracking application nonetheless.

  • midnight_walker #2 2 years ago

    I've used it 3 times - each time I've had to wait about half an hour for it to update, which completely defeats its purpose as an instant-on jukebox.

  • Mkwone #3 2 years ago

    I've used it hear and there and i think it's a good product. Just a shame that it's a mare to operate.

  • Psiloc #4 2 years ago

    ^ It was updated not long ago to really speed up the boot process. I've waited over an hour before; now it takes about a minute.

  • charliemouse #5 2 years ago

    If you use it regularly it takes less than a minute to update the feeds.

  • M_of_the_sys #6 2 years ago

    I've used it 3 times - each time I've had to wait about half an hour for it to update, which completely defeats its purpose as an instant-on jukebox.

    Were the three times months between each other?

  • Plewt #7 2 years ago

    It always hanged on startup/install for me despite several re-downloads.

  • systems #8 2 years ago

    I too used it three times, each time with a massive update (and probably with a PS3 system update before that). I've just spoken to some ps3 regulars and they've never even tried it (nor have they tried Home, or that globe thing with the news on whose name eludes me).

    Nice to have as a freebie feature of course, but I'd rather they stopped pissing about with things like this and get cross-game chat done. They don't have to force every Sony product down our throats all day (Buy a Sony 3DTV! Buy music from Sony artists!).

    I'll give it another try to see this new updating system.

  • nickthegun #9 2 years ago

    VIDZONE IS UPDATING THE LIBRARY. THIS MAY TAKE MANY, MANY, MANY MINUTES

  • blanka33 #10 2 years ago

    Hey, Ben from VidZone here. thanks for all your kind words. The VidZone team work really hard to give its users what they want.

    For all you that have start up issues, we have changed the way we update the system now which is tons faster than before. Nobody should be waiting more than a couple of mins max even on a slow connection.

    If anyone has any comments, ideas, rants, praise, reccomendations or anythign you want to talk to us about, please email laystation@vidzone.tv">playstation@vidzone.tv

    Thanks again everyone for making VidZone the success that it is today.

  • MattyD #11 2 years ago

    Vidzone is literally the only thing I ever use my PS3 for. Makes me wonder why I bought the damn thing TBH.

  • Widge #12 2 years ago

    No surprise, you spend far too much time on here searching out PS3 articles to shout "OMG IT IS SHIT" to be bothered powering the thing up.

  • Toothball #13 2 years ago

    It sounds like a decent enough service on paper. I'd never bother with it though as I've never really cared for music videos. I always thought music was better listened to while you do something else, rather than taking up the TV too.

  • jefranklin18 #14 2 years ago

    Vidzone is a great app, especially for a freebie ;)

    Until I moved the PS3 from the lounge into my study (never a more inappropriately named room given the amount of gaming I do in there), it used to get a good amount of usage from me. I find it great to have on in the background at parties as it means I can put on a better mix of music than my cheesy pop collection or VH1s stuff.


  • BOBBYLUPO #15 2 years ago

    It's a good service but I find the user interface to be a bit of a nightmare tbh. On more than a few occasions I've tried searching for songs only to accidentally activate the world's worst playlist.

    /is old

  • Ducklord #16 2 years ago

    Certainly is a lovely application, but I do agree with the menu's being a little clunky- it can take an incredibly long time to make a playlist. However, IDEA: link vidzone to a website where we can make our playlists- should make the process at least a little smoother?

  • dfua #17 2 years ago

    Has it got any easier to navigate and use? Its a nice service for free but it used to be a real pain and put off anyone in our house who tried it.

  • parablax #18 2 years ago

    We use it alot, there are some good videos tucked away in there if you spend a bit of time with it.
    I agree the interface is mind-blowingly fiddly, but worth the effort to listen to free vids/music etc.

  • DavidBoring #19 2 years ago

    a well deserved success, great app, that got even got better over time

  • Arwin #20 2 years ago

    Has gotten much better recently. Better quality options, better navigation, boots up quickly, updates quickly, and I really like also that you can type the name of artists or songs with a bluetooth or usb keyboard or keypad or whatever, that's a big plus too (I have a bluetooth keyboard lying around my couch).

  • AllenSpawn #21 2 years ago

    A 13 min live version of the stone roses, I am the resurrection, is worth the wait/clunky menus alone.

    There are some amazing live videos on there from Arcade Fire and Kasabian.

    All it needs is some Muse and Jurassic 5, and I will declare it perfect.

  • alcides #22 2 years ago

    ah, but has that user interface evolved since I last stepped in it?

  • Kaminari #23 2 years ago

    Still doesn't make up for a true online radio.

  • Moarachanox #24 2 years ago

    @blanka33

    stop interupting me with thad activision fail#

  • Murton #25 2 years ago

    I use this quite a bit, the metal selection is actually quite good considering, Kerrang and Scuzz pander too much to flavour of the month so-called "hardcore" bands while they wait on the emo revival leaving Vidzone and Youtube as the only means of getting a metal music video fix (unless MTV get their act together and bring back headbangers ball or similar)

    The only improvement other than to keep expanding the library would be to kill the "video of the day" autoplay on start and just deliver the menu as it used to. More often than not the "video of the day" is utter cack that I really don't want to listen to and can't get rid of fast enough due to the clunky, but otherwise acceptable interface.

  • Psiloc #26 2 years ago

    Anyone complaining that this takes too long to boot hasn't updated the software, so in fairness probably shouldn't be making comments about it.

    I do hate that it makes a random playlist on startup though.

  • Psiloc #27 2 years ago

    Agree that Sony don't push this anywhere near hard enough. It's wonderful, and has completely replaced all living room based musicalness for me.

  • Soton4084 #28 2 years ago

    I've used it a couple of times, but found the variety of artists a bit lacking. However, it's pretty good considering it's free. I honestly think if Sony improved it and bundled it with PS Plus or charged a small amount for it then they'd be onto a winner. No idea why they haven't gone down that route.

  • RodHull #29 2 years ago

    The boiler in my kitchen is making noises akin to a baby sparrow. Is that related to why the quality of video in VidZone is so awful?

  • Psiloc #30 2 years ago

    No, it's the fact you're insane.

  • darth_paul #31 2 years ago

    funny, never watched a video there :p
    a success though, guess

  • Lucodeath #32 2 years ago

    I have to wait an age before it loads, my internet speed is to blame I think. How does sony make money from it, so is it a financial success?
    Edited by Lucodeath at 26/10/10 @ 20:03

  • mousearmyone #33 2 years ago

    To the people who can use Vidzone, I am jealous of your internets.

  • Murton #34 2 years ago

    Lucodeath: Sony sell ad space in the form of banner ads at the bottom of the screen as well as running the odd full video ad. It's also technically free advertising for any band/artist on a Sony music label and Sony could always advertise 1st party games on there for free too if they wished.

    Advertising is a massive earner for the very small amount of effort involved so I can see VidZone making a mint quite easily.