When it comes to portable digital music players and online music services, “how Sony got outflanked is as much about Sony’s inflexibility as Apple’s initiative. With its ownership of premier music labels and its foundation in electronics, Sony had all the tools to create its own version of iPod long before Apple’s product came to market in 2001. But Sony has long wrestled with how to build devices that let consumers download and copy music without undermining sales in the music labels or agreements with its artists,” writes Ken Belson for The New York Times.
“A lot is riding on the Connect online store, which will be released in a few weeks. If it catches on with consumers, it will help validate the company’s longheld goal of integrating its electronics, music and movie businesses–and give it a shot at re-establishing its leadership in the latest generation of portable music… Sony’s brand name, vast retail network and expertise in electronics are notable advantages, which Samit said made it possible for Sony to offer a more affordable and more convenient alternative to Apple’s music system,” Belson writes.
“Like Apple’s iTunes online music store, Connect will have 500,000 songs that can be downloaded for 99 cents each. But while iTunes songs can be played only on iPods, Sony already sells a variety of devices, including minidisc and compact disc players, which can play songs bought on Connect’s Web site. Sony’s new Hi-MD disc player, for instance, will hold up to 45 hours of music on one disc, which will retail for about $7,” Belson writes. “One of Sony’s flash memory players will store up to 22 hours of music and have batteries that last about 100 hours. ‘We’re not about one-size-fits-all,’ said Samit [general manager of Sony Connect], sitting in his Manhattan office with Louis Armstrong playing in the background. ‘You can’t believe it’s about just one brick that people will carry,’ he said, referring to the iPod.”
Belson writes, “Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said the minidisc player, which uses discs that can be recorded on, much like a cassette player, would not catch on in the United States the way it had overseas. ‘We have a very healthy respect for Sony,’ Jobs said in a telephone interview. ‘But Sony believes very strongly in the minidisc, and we don’t. It might work in Japan but not here.’ Apple’s most expensive iPod, by contrast, uses a hard drive that can store up to 10,000 songs.”
“‘Sony is coming out with their own format, but we don’t need another standard,’ said Joe Wilcox, an analyst at Jupiter Research. ‘The market for protected digital downloads is in the early stages of a format war. It’s a recipe for consumer confusion.’ Still, Wilcox and other analysts said that Sony had a loyal following that could help it seize a share of the digital music market quickly. ‘Look at the resources at their disposal,’ said Douglas Krone, the chief executive of Dynamism.com, a Web site that sells high-end electronics. ‘They own all the intellectual property and they have the retail channel. It will be hard for Apple to maintain its market share,'” Belson writes.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Sony to launch European Connect Music Store in June – March 17, 2004
No Big Mac for Apple; McDonald’s to give away over 100 million Sony Connect songs – March 22, 2004
Potential McDonald’s, Sony music download giveaway just plain stupid – March 24, 2004
What?
The last time Sony got in a Format war they got crushed. This time it won’t be just Beta vs VHS, it’ll be Sony vs Microsoft & Apple.
will sony’s format run on WMP? if not, it doesn’t stand a chance….. cos it most probably won’t run on itunes…. sony would have been a bigger threat if they fully supported the Microsoft juggernaut…. or if they had microsoft’s full support….
I live in Japan and Mini discs while a good idea are not as good as the ipod. Sony’s products here always have some sort of protection built in – for example : region codes, copy-protection and their own stupid verison of the MP3 (Ataic ??). Mini discs sell well here but in the 8 years that Ive lived in Japan – Every week, I see more and more people buying MP3 players.
Nah, it’ll just run Atrac 3 and run itself into the ground. Sony is good at a lot of things, but it doesn’t play nice and burns itself with stupid ideas like the memory stick.
Yeah Right! And the Earth is flat!
Well, that’s not gonna happen (referring to Sony’s belief they’ll take over the electronic Music marketplace). In fact, I’ll be FINALLY joining the iPod masses in a few weeks when I get my Tax Refund. I’m getting a 15Gig. W00t!
Songs purchased on iTMS can be played on all kinds of CD players. You just have to burn it to a disc.
Part of the beauty of the iTMS/iPod is being able to purchase a few new tracks and seconds later have your iPod updated. I can’t imagine taking the time to think about what songs I wanted to burn to a minidisc. I simply rate the new songs I purchase and instantly my smartplaylists for genre and ratings are update. I’m on the go in minutes. Jobs is correct that minidiscs will not take off in the US.
I’m looking forward to this actually, as I assume they will use ATRAC3. Anything to make it harder on MS the better. I don’t think this will affect apple much at all.
sony’s corporate culture is not the same as it was in the 80’s when they came out with the walkman and took the industry by storm. now they are bigger and not as mobile. apple is small enough of a company to adapt quickly and make adjustments to stay competitive. at least i hope so. they also have huge brand presence in japan – more so than here in the US and that will help. god save Apple!
The iPod is not anywhere CLOSE to being a “brick” and that just confirms for me that Samit clearly hasn’t ever had one in his hands, even though he’s just a few blocks away from the Apple Store if his office is in Manhattan. Now, if he’d been referring to the Dull DJ, then I’d have been more apt to believe him – OH, wait – that must be another brick in his wall…
Does this “anal-yst” know Sony lost the war on Beta, Mini-disc, super 8.etc,etc,? Sony does not have any track record of winning any standard wars!!! Dah!!!! Some low standard “journalists” don’t have to do any research anymore, they just BS!!!!!
you are all focused on the wrong thing…here is where Sony has a competitive advantage:
They own the rights to the music! The could sell songs for 69 cents and make the same amount if mot more than Apple is making with their store. If they have a reasonably good player in a reasonable good price range they will be able to leverage that will less expensive music and win the format war.
Apple needs to partner with Sony or they will lose in the long term.
Isnt that typical of apple though? Start out Strong then Die?
Good for Sony if they think they can make something better, but until then, let’s wait and see.
This guy must work for the Sony PR department. I like Sony, I own one of their camcorders and it is great. Remember Micro DV? The format Sony tried to release about 2 years ago. Dead fish. You have to wonder who is making the decisions within these corpse, oops, Corps. Go Apple.
the real one
yes, and get your own name
What I like about Sony Connect is that it is another closed system focused on integration. The so-called analysts that criticize Apple for being a closed system will also have to say the same for Sony. Are Chris Gorog & Rob Glaser going to warn consumers to ‘stay off the Sony platform?’ All the WMA services will have to say their services don’t work with iPod or Sony. While I think it will fail, it adds an interesting new element to the format war.
The only brick is Dell’s clone. By referring to the iPod as a “brick”, then their player must be alot lighter, and I would like to see that. ha
I wish the mini-disc had caught on. Sony is a year behind on their release…good luck I think competition is good and I think Sony as a competitor is good for all of us. Because Apple is the only real thing out there running now, when all this catches on and some other player or players get a little marketshare, sure Apple’s iPod marketshare will decline some, as they are the only real player currently. But then the analysts are gonna report the “Fall of Apple’s iPod as soon as some other competition gets up and running.
That is what I hate the most.
“you are all focused on the wrong thing…here is where Sony has a competitive advantage:
They own the rights to the music! …” – the one
Unfortunately for Sony, it is also one of their disadvantages. It is no secret that content providers are at odds with gadget makers. One wants to control, the other wants to set them free. Having contents under one roof was one of the reasons Sony was behind in digital player market.
Heh, it’s a CNET article. By CNET’s count, there have been 78 iPod killers, 93 iTMS killers, 283 iTMS death calls and 1673 Apple death calls.
You launch a music store with 20 songs at $20/song and CNET will call it iTMS killer.
A bit off topic but interesting. The New Orleans Jazz Fest (http://www.nojazzfest.com) this weekend (and the next) will have downloads available for purchase, all DRM-free. A USAToday story specifically mentioned songs in AAC for the iPod.
From the press release:
“The recordings of participating artists will be available within days, and sometimes hours, after the performances have occurred. At a new Web site�www.jazzfestlive.com� customers will have a choice of downloading the recordings to their PCs in various music file formats (AAC, WMA 9, MP3, FLAC) or having the recordings shipped to them on CDs.”
Wow.. Sony… good post webbyswim… their Corporate culture now is hardly innovative… Sony’s Playstation was a hit purely because of Nintendo’s greed.. the PS2 was an early monster w backward compatibility and the rest is history..
Nothing else sony is doing right now is that amazing.. and Sony not using AAC is a bit foolish (regardless of which DRM wrapping they use).
The MiniDisc player is annoying.. Guess what.. you can’t just put it on random like the iPod.. IT ACTUALLY HAS DISCS! BIG STEP BACK! You can only play a packet of songs at a time!
But oh wait.. can we expect this Sony Connect thing to be compatible w Aiwa iPod killer..*snicker..
Puhhh-lease..
I think it’s obvious that this store is going to be nothing until SOny releases their GBA killer for $229 US.. something called the PSP… (sarcasm.. GBA costs $99 and outsells the PS2 i believe)..
Know why it doesn’t mention MUSIC in the store name.. probably they want to sell SOny movies too duh..
The sad fact for Sony is that the last product they offered that people were interested in was the Walkman, 15 years ago. This music store is just an attempt by Sony to feed some programming to all the products they have released that consumers have had no interest in.
Suddenly offering downloads for pieces of shit that no one’s buying doesn’t exactly set you up to overwhelm the market.