A comeback story by Sony’s Music (needs third act)!

Sony’s quest to return to a position of power in the music sector already faced plenty of obstacles.

A reputation for writing flawed software was one. Another was the company’s history of creating failed consumer-focused media services that appeared more concerned with satisfying honchos at the company’s film studio and record label. The company’s hardware and software makers struggled to build devices and services that allayed security concerns held by content creators. Sony Connect, the so-called iTunes killer that bubbled up out of the chaos, was a glitch-prone and DRM-laden fiasco that launched to great fan apathy.

Then, early this year, Sony was just getting out the door with a subscription music service, called Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, when the start-up saw its brand tainted by a massive security breach. In April, hackers infiltrated Sony’s security systems and made off with personal information belonging to more than 75 million users of PlayStation Network and Qriocity. The fledgling service is now more associated with pilfered data than it is with music.

If Sony plans to write its own Rocky-esque digital-music story, the time has come for the company to drag its bruised-and-bloodied self off the canvas and start landing some blows of its own.

That’s what the company says it has begun doing. Last week, Qriocity widened its mobile availability by launching an Android app. Before that, subscribers could only access their Qriocity digital lockers via their PlayStation, PC, or PlayStation Portable device as well as some Sony TVs and Blu-ray players. Sony was lambasted in February for launching Qriocity without any on-the-go listening options. Lest we forget, it was just over a decade ago that Sony and its Walkman CD player were synonymous with portable music. Since then, Apple and its iPod, iTunes, and iPhone have shoved Sony and Walkman into the shadows.