Sony | Music Center

Review by eFreeware

If you own Sony audio equipment, Sony | Music Center is the app the company built to sit on top of it. It handles two jobs at once: playing music that lives on your phone, including Hi-Res tracks, and acting as a remote for compatible Sony speakers, soundbars and hi-fi components. Anyone with a shelf of Sony gear who wants the settings and playback controls in one place is the obvious audience.

For that person, the appeal is straightforward. Rather than juggling a remote, a phone player and a separate speaker app, you get a single place to pick a source, adjust the sound and manage how devices work together. It is free, carries no ads and has no in-app purchases, which matters when so many audio apps push a subscription for basic control.

The catch is compatibility. The control side only works with audio hardware that Sony lists as compatible, so the app is at its most useful to households already invested in that ecosystem. If your speakers come from elsewhere, the playback half still functions, but the device management that gives the app its name does not.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is someone who has bought into Sony's audio range in the last several years and wants to run it from a phone. The app adjusts device settings such as the equalizer, sleep timer and network options, which turns a phone into a general-purpose remote for a living room or den setup.

A second group is people with a music library spread across devices. The app plays tracks stored on the phone, reads from CD and USB sources, and can browse or search music folders kept on a computer or network drive over DLNA. If your collection never made it fully into a streaming service, that combination covers a lot of ground.

A third is anyone building a multi-speaker arrangement. The app supports multi-room, surround and stereo configurations with several speakers connected wirelessly, which is the sort of setup that normally demands a dedicated control app. Note that these grouping options, like the rest of the control features, are limited to compatible devices.

It is worth adding that the app supports TalkBack, so screen reader users can navigate it. The microphone is used for voice operation, according to the permissions Sony lists. That is a practical detail for anyone who relies on accessibility tools or prefers speaking commands over tapping through menus.

Playing music from the phone and beyond

The playback side is broader than the name suggests. You can listen to music stored on the smartphone itself, including Hi-Res sources, and the app also pulls in content from CD and USB. That makes it a hub for physical and local media rather than a storefront.

The DLNA support is the more interesting piece. If your music sits on a computer or a NAS drive on the same network, the app can browse or search those folders and play from them without moving files onto the phone. For anyone with a large archive organized in folders, that is often easier than syncing.

Sound quality is where Sony makes its pitch. The app is presented as a way to hear Hi-Res sources at high quality, and when it connects to other Sony audio devices it applies settings tuned for each one. That claim about optimized sound per device comes from the developer, and how much difference it makes will depend on the hardware you pair with it.

Controlling compatible Sony hardware

The control features are the reason most people install this. From the app you can change settings on a connected audio device, including the equalizer, the sleep timer and network options. Those adjustments are limited to compatible devices, so the app's usefulness here tracks directly with what you own.

Multi-room, surround and stereo arrangements can be set up wirelessly across multiple speakers, which is the feature that turns a collection of separate units into one system.

Sony also notes that devices which worked with the older SongPal app are compatible with Music Center as well, which is helpful for anyone upgrading from that era of hardware. It is a small line, but it answers a question long-time Sony owners are likely to have.

What it costs and what you need to run it

The app is free. It contains no ads and offers no in-app purchases, so there is nothing to unlock and no subscription sitting between you and the controls. That is unusual for a manufacturer companion app and removes a common annoyance.

The requirements are where you need to pay attention. From version 7.4 onward the app runs only on Android 9.0 or later, and it does not support mobile devices built on Atom processors. Sony also dropped compatibility with the STR-DN850, STR-DN1050, ICF-CS20BT and XDR-DS21BT when version 5.2 arrived, so owners of those specific models are affected.

Beyond that, Sony notes that not every device supports every feature, and that some functions and services may be unavailable in certain regions or countries. Keeping the app updated to the latest version is recommended. With more than 10 million installs and a 4.4 average across over 301,000 ratings, it has clearly found a large audience since its release in February 2014.

How it compares with the alternatives

The realistic comparison is with a dedicated music player and your speaker's own remote. A general-purpose player will handle local files perfectly well, and many people already have one they like. What it will not do is adjust the equalizer or sleep timer on a Sony audio device or group several Sony speakers into a multi-room arrangement.

A universal remote app is the other option, but those tend to control playback and power rather than the deeper audio settings this app exposes. The same goes for a streaming service's own casting tools: they move audio to a speaker, but they do not manage the device itself.

So the app's value is tied to the hardware. If you own compatible Sony audio products, it consolidates control and local playback in one place. If you do not, the control half has nothing to talk to, and the playback features are the part that remains.

A companion app worth having for Sony owners

Sony | Music Center makes sense for people who own compatible Sony audio equipment and want to run it from their phone. It plays Hi-Res tracks and local libraries, reaches music stored on a computer or NAS over DLNA, and puts device settings and speaker grouping in one place, all without ads or purchases.

The conditions are worth weighing before you install. You need Android 9.0 or later, a phone that is not Atom-based, and compatible Sony hardware for the control features to do anything. A handful of older models lost support at version 5.2, and some functions vary by device and region.

If those boxes are ticked, this is a well-established app with a large user base and a strong average rating, and it covers ground that a plain music player does not. If your audio gear is not on Sony's compatibility list, the device control that defines the app will have nothing to work with.

What's new

Improved stability and performance.