Sony Connect Online Music Download Store Launches 373
securitas writes "USA Today's Jefferson Graham reports that today Sony launched its online music download store, Sony Connect, to compete with Apple's leading iTunes service. The tracks use the MagicGate DRM copy-protection scheme and will work only with Sony Memory Stick-compatible devices including VAIO computers, CLIE PDAs, MiniDisc, CD and Walkman products. Sony will also launch a new line of 1-gigabyte Hi-MD disc players that support the service. Sony Connect's catalog sports 500,000 tracks from independent and major labels and songs sell for 99 cents each or $10 per album. The service uses Sony's SonicStage software and works with Windows 98SE-XP PCs only. It is only available in the USA until the planned European launch in June. That's a whole lot of restrictions in an already-fragmented market. More at The Register and The Age."
Kiss Apple Goodbye! (Score:3, Interesting)
1. They're a major record label AND a major PC vendor
2. They can get into the Japanese market easier
I think they'll be able to clobber Apple.
Why do they still push the memory stick (Score:5, Interesting)
when I look for a divice that uses a flash card, I do not buy sony because I will not be able to use it on any other device I already own, right now I am looking at digital camras, and I sony is not even an option for me because I can not use it with any other device I use, I want one with an sd card because all my other devices accept an SD card.
I think it is not a good idea to only suppord devices that only use a memory stick for it, since, that limites your market right there.
This sounds like a joke, but it's not April 1. (Score:5, Interesting)
From the sonyconnect site [sonyconnect.com]: "What devices are compatible with Connect?
Any ATRAC-compatible device from Sony works with Connect."
Great! This will be a huge hit with the people who thought Apple's music store doesn't support enough players.
I wonder how many iPods there are out there in the public's hands for every Sony Memory-Stick and "Hi-MD" device. I'm guessing at least 4, and that's being generous to Sony.
And 1GB. Wow. That's sooo much music. Has anyone at Sony ever even heard of hard drives? C'mon, I was expecting some sort of competition here, but this is more like a joke.
Anyone know what restrictions the DRM imposes? They conveniently make no mention of it on their 5-page website (overview, features, download, customer support, independent label signup). I'd say that's pretty relevant information to put out front if you want to convince people to download your software.
-Daniel Pritchard [starseven.net]
Talk about limiting your options (Score:3, Interesting)
The trendy people and the first-out-of-the-gate people have already gone to Apple. And people interested in their own personaly freedom and fair use will be using one of the services that doesn't include all this hand-tying. So I think Sony might get 10 or 20 people to use this.
So Then (Score:2, Interesting)
DRM and proprietary memory stick, that just doubles my reasons not to subscribe to it.
Re:So basically, Sony copied Apple . . . (Score:0, Interesting)
Sounds a whole hell of a lot less restrictive than Apple to me.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Playstation (Score:5, Interesting)
At least you can use Apple's stuff.... (Score:3, Interesting)
DOA (Score:5, Interesting)
You would think the Betamaxalicious success of MiniDisc (yeah yeah, its big in Japan, whatever) would have taught Sony a lesson here. Its amazing, Sony has gone from being one of the smartest companies in consumer electronics to one of the dumbest in a very short period of time.
Their financials are in the crapper and they can't seem to bring anything to market to dissaude iPod buyers.
Who designed their site? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Kiss Apple Goodbye! (Score:2, Interesting)
But for me, I found their music B.S. rather insulting and very limiting. Overall it just plain sucks. I know this from experience after thinking a Clié would be a good music player. I couldn't have been more wrong and if you like MP3s, well then you'll be screwed even more, since Sony makes MP3 managing, importing and playback a major pain.
Unless Sony get's off their arses and actually produces a HD device that's easy to use like the iPod, gives the same freedom of the iPod, where one format isn't prefered over another, Sony will sink like the Titanic.
Apple has the best service on the market, Sony can take several pointers from them, one being that MusicMatch is a horrible application compared to iTunes.
Re:Deja Vu (Score:3, Interesting)
Some companies (Sony et al) get so wrapped up in themselves that they can't understand why anyone would want to do anything their own way, or without purchasing something. It all comes down to the mindset of the company. On one hand you have people who think
"What do my customers want? How can I make them happy and make them want to do business with me?"
Hooray for them! But they are a dying breed. Now you are more likely to find companies that think
"This is what you want to do, and this is the product you need to do it. Do not insert any of your own thought or creativity into your activities, as that would not fit with our business model and thus will cause problems. If you take issue with this, feel free to wait on hold at our customer service number for a couple hours only to listen to a prerecorded menu that does not include the option you want."
This my friends is the problem. These companies are too self absorbed. They can't image you as anything other than a bleeding wallet, so they can't possibly understand what you want.
Fragmented market (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sorry, but I can't help but say anything but "fuck you!" to all that.
If they can make their DRM work just fine with winamp, and not require me to have any special software to use their site, I might be able to deal with it.
You might try and compare it to online games, but most of those, you get the game and the rest is pretty much automatic. It's more like if Amazon and Barnes and Noble required you to use their own proprietary browsers to shop their web sites.
It might be MEANT to be a pain in the ass to make it harder to switch to a competitor...but the first site that can keep out of court and turn a profit while using nothing more than a web browser, will be the one who can REALLY take on Apple.
it wont fly to well... (Score:3, Interesting)
Betamax and VHS... (Score:2, Interesting)
It's interesting how Sony [sony.net] portrays their own history.
Sony Software (Score:2, Interesting)
Just another single vendor DRM format - just what the world needed. So far Apple has beaten Sony on it's own field of expertise: cool consumer electronics.
All those former industry leaders in the analog arena (Sony, Kodak,
Re:Kiss Apple Goodbye! (Score:3, Interesting)
Furthermore, even though Sega's arcade divisions were the first to crank out 3D games such as Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, and Daytona, the Saturn design team, who for whatever the reason didn't notice the arrival of 3D gaming, focused on making the Saturn a 2D monster and was completely sideswiped by the Playstation's 3D capabilities.
And on top of all that, charging $400 for the Saturn against the $300 Playstation didn't help either. So like I said, I give props to Sony for dominating the console market, but Sega and Nintendo did a lot to dig their own graves.
Re:Deja Vu (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway "Betamaxing" is a more or less well-accepted term for licensing something into oblivion even though it is superior.
Music Catalog (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This sounds like a joke, but it's not April 1. (Score:3, Interesting)
As for 1GB discs, there is a market for a lot of different formats (remember the
Here's a tidbit they buried in the docs (Score:5, Interesting)
Do not use SonicStage while logged on to a domain user account under Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition.
SonicStage should be installed while logged on to an account with administrator privileges.
So I can't be logged into a domain while using the software? so much for the "at-work" crowd.
99 cents per song sounds familiar (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This sounds like a joke, but it's not April 1. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm avoiding iPods because they're bloody expensive. $249 (mini) or $299 (regular) for a souped-up walkman? Ridiculous.
Small flash-memory USB-stick mp3 players are priced around the $80-$90 mark, which is a much saner figure for personal music.
Re:Kiss Apple Goodbye! (Score:4, Interesting)
Where I see Sony having an advantage is their size and market force that Apple cannot touch. Sony doesn't have to pay the same royalties that Apple does to labels sine Sony is a major label. Sony can also pull strings to get a bunch of thier "cool" "artists" to do some commercials and you now have millions of screaming teens crying to their parents to get them a device from Sony. Next, Sony can do deals with MS that Apple just cannot do. With MS and Sony, they can own the Media market by locking consumers into their technology. Give it about two years and Apple will dwindle, not because iTMS is bad, but becuase it is just too hard to fight "the system".
Think about all the things Sony can do to stop Apple. They can do back room deals with other labels to release new content to only thier format or MS's format. That right there would slowly kill Apple. Either Apple dies or changes iTMS to work with the new formats. If Apple works with the new formats, then Apple loses the lock-in to their iPod.
Re:So basically, Sony copied Apple . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Want to make a zillion dollars, beat Apple at this whole 'music' thing?
99c per download, format of choice. Have them available as 128bit, 192bit, 256bit MP3s. Have them available as ogg/vorbis files, flac files,
There you go. Catch a clue, before Microsoft or Google or someone else does it - whoever gets there first is going to be the one that takes the title away from Apple.
Re:99 cents per song sounds familiar (Score:3, Interesting)
You can typically take what Andrew Orlowski writes with a grain of salt, or at least apply an appropriate filter. He is not an unbiased journalist.
I don't know if he used the word "badger" or you, but that's hugely overstating it. Some record companies were discussing changing the pricing, but discussing pricing strategy is a major part of what all companies do -- even "good" companies like Apple and Red Hat.
Re:Official Policy (Score:2, Interesting)
Like most EULAs, it's all posturing and nonsense. Copyright laws address copying and distribution, not usage. The law gives no provision for restricting how I use something after I've paid for it. To all the corporate shills who think using music the wrong way is a crime - it isn't, and shame on you for not standing up for your own God-given rights.
Can you imagine if books had EULAs warning readers that if they read the book in the wrong place, or in the wrong way, or read it out loud to their friends, or used it to prop up a wobbly table, they would be violating copyright law? It's just as ridiculous. Good grief.
Big Up The Archos Massive (Score:3, Interesting)
I paid $72 (new!) for a 20GB Archos about which I have no illusions as to hype factor but whose low price makes it an envied object by many of my friends. Maybe I have cheap friends?
My "cutting-edge" Archos [rockbox.haxx.se] plays video, features speaking-voice menu prompts and playlists, unlimited bookmarking, and supports a robust plugin architecture with games and PDA functions.
If and when the iPod Linux project manages to definitively crack open the closed iPod box then there will get some cool "cutting edge" add-on apps and functions, but until then for me it's a closed uninteresting box very far from the "cutting edge".
Re:Loss leader? (Score:3, Interesting)
If there were any time for a few buisnesses to come along and begin selling garage band songs at a lower price and begin directly competing with the RIAA, now'd be a good time. I'd bet it'd make some big bucks and win the buisness of quite a few bands and disgrunteled customers if you campaigned right. Think of MP3.com on p2p, and you could download any song for $.20, no DRM in mp3 or ogg, and $.5 or $.10 of that went to the artist. You could also add in some kind of server-side lisencing system, so you'd have the music in any format for-ever and for a small fee, you could download it to any location (like a mp3 player at a wifi location, as an example).