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Sony Connect Online Music Download Store Launches
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."
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.
Best Buy can have you arrested
it such a small share, I only know of one company that uses it (correct me if I am wrong)
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.
...will work only with Sony Memory Stick-compatible devices... ...1-gigabyte Hi-MD disc players...
From the sonyconnect site: "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
That's a whole lot of restrictions in an already-fragmented market.
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.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
DRM and proprietary memory stick, that just doubles my reasons not to subscribe to it.
Yes, but Apple was innovative in spearheading the vendor lock-in. But we can't say bad things about Apple here at /., only other companies who do the same exact thing.
Sounds a whole hell of a lot less restrictive than Apple to me.
It'd be interesting if Sony added some features to the upcoming PS3 to included support for their music store. With game consoles gradually veering towards becoming "home media centers" (or whatever the buzz word is today), this seems like a possible move.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Sony's stuff is restricted to Sony's patforms. At least Apple's iTunes software is multiplatform, openly usable (there are cgi scripts that will query the database and get songs for you) - I dont think Sony will get very far with their online music store.
-Imidazole2
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.
So they've got their featured artist featured on the right side of the homepage. You'd think maybe you could click on the graphic and access those tracks? Nah! That'd be too logical. Usability. Start there, then add the fluffy stuff later.
I completely agree.
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.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
All these services requiring their own software, or even their own devices...or at least strongly discouraging using anything else...
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.
If customers buy responsibly and if NetMD/OpenMG was any indication of how tight sony's DRM is, they shouldn't do so well against Apple. Apple has the advantage of the iPod and the fact that its players hold loads more music than an MD (which you have to burn) or a Memory Stick (which you burn your money buying). sony is just too restrictive when it comes to things. I couldn't even upload a recording I made via NetMD. I had to use a freaking optical out cable and manually record it. Who wants restrictions like that?
MY SECRET DIARIES
...are what first sprung to mind. Perhaps the analogy isn't quite right, but I think Sony's making a somewhat similar mistake here. But then I realized that maybe Sony considered Betamax to be a success? ... and at the time, they didn't even control any content, like they do now.
It's interesting how Sony portrays their own history.
Sony Software has always sucked - especially SonicStage. It came with my MiniDisc-Player and it is #*+/&%$"$%!!!! And Sony customer service is even worse ...
...) seem to fail completely to cling to their lead positions in the digital age.
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,
Anyway "Betamaxing" is a more or less well-accepted term for licensing something into oblivion even though it is superior.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I've noticed that iTunes and Real have the same catalog. I haven't checked out Napster, but I'm starting to wonder if they are all sharing the same exact music source that the labels have approved. Does anyone know for sure?
-Patrick
"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Notes:
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.
I find it interesting that the RIAA spent some time trying to badger Apple into increasing the price-per-song on iTMS, but now Sony (an RIAA member) comes out with their own service selling songs for the same price.
Sony (et.al) - here we go again. Listen up.
.WMA files, .ipod files (or whatever.) At a dollar apiece, with good bandwidth, no restrictions on how / where we can use them, know what we are getting, have a MASSIVE selection (ie, every song known to man all in one place), no worries of spyware or viruses in the client, no hassles by the RIAA ... and guess what : customers (myself included) will go absolutely bat-shit lining themselves to suck your servers dry. For a dollar it really isn't worth all the shit I used to go through to get the songs I wanted (I gave the P2P crap up a long time ago out of frustration, long before the RIAA got upset about it.)
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.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
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.
they could pay $250 for a cutting-edge 4GB iPod Mini will make them the envy of their technologically inferior friends
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 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".
Da Blog
Nah. Notice how the RIAA is indirectly selling their music via these services? They're engauging in price fixing on the web as well; notice how all the services have the same exact or more expensive price than $.99 a song? The idea is to break the market up into mostly loyal sections through the use of proprietary DRM'd devices or get everyone on a single, protected platform so they can't go for a compeditor. They might also try something particularily evil; getting people to sign non-compete agreements to get big discounts and then lobbing congress to give them a monopoly on all of the media since so many people have signed it.
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).
Candy-Coated Knowledge