Two reports, one on Engadget and the other on BetaNews, highlight Sony's decision last Friday to close its Connect music and video service.
The operation had been struggling for some time, not least because of the poor support from the parent company; itself becoming ever more fragmented. Recent focusing on buying out Grouper as a competitor to YouTube and MySpace lookalike 'Minisode Network' seems to have diverted resources from what should have been its bread-and-butter business. However no-one can argue that the dominance of iTunes, and particularly the recent announcement of DRM-free downloads from that site, must have had a hand in putting the final nail in the coffin of Connect. Other reasons are obvious, such as Sony's insistence that its proprietary encoding method ATRAC should prevail on the site.
However, to show the lack of joined-up thinking within the company, have a read of what Sony Corp. chairman and CEO Howard Stringer said* only the day before the Connect employees were told that the service was closing:
“The digital sales are creeping up; in some cases, they’re around 40 percent. . . . it’s a moment at which they [the music industry] have to say, well, look, it’s not fair, maybe, and we make all this content and what about our artists and what about our relationships, but the reality is, the customer is getting that music. So if we find ways to embrace the digital era and not fight it quite so enthusiastically, or sadly, then we’ll be in pretty good shape, I think.”
It seems the corporation will move its attentions to the PS3 market, with most of the employees being transferred to jobs within this area. What is less clear is the future of SonicStage, the Sony software which allowed the downloading and transfer of DRM'd ATRAC to the Sony portable music players. For subscribers who have downloaded music with DRM attached, and want to transfer to a new machine, the consequences are even more uncertain.
Thanks to Waethorn for letting us know about this news.
*source : paidContent.org
