AfterDawn: News

Sony closes music and video download division

According to paidcontent.org, Sony has decided to close their Connect music and video download division and instead focus on their struggling PlayStation group.

Of Connect, only the eBooks division will remain with the leftover employees transitioned over to work on the PlayStation. The decision was almost certainly based on the digital music market in which Apple has a huge, almost insurmountable share.



The Sony Connect cheif will leave the company and it is not known whether the eBooks division will keep the Connect name.

Sony Connect was doomed from the start, mainly because of its decision to only include the Sony proprietary format in its downloads, a format that could only be read by Sony's players. There was also a lack of marketing, possibly due to internal disagreements over where the division was heading.

Source:
BetaNews

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Jun 2007 15:18

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• 8 comments

• akaangus

  Quote:Sony Connect was doomed from the start, mainly because of its decision to only include the Sony proprietary format in its downloads, a format that could only be read by Sony's players.That didn't seem to hurt Apple's sales. Perhaps the Sony MP3 players being so generic is what caused them to lose all the money? When I went buying a player I don't even remember seeing a HDD-based one from them, they only had crappy thumb-drive ones around. The decision was only between Apple and Creative.

  18.6.2007 16:45 #1

• OzMick

  Chalk another mark up against Sony for yet ANOTHER failed proprietary format. You'd think they'd have learnt by now...

  18.6.2007 16:48 #2

• spydah

  That was the dumbest thing i read by Sony. Why copy Apple. They been doing this with good products. Common sense would have said lets create another way to introduce our music and products that will attract people to our style of music format. Apple is successful because their mp3 and video player was different and got popular quick. Sony needs to fire all those people who come up with these dumb idea's.

  18.6.2007 19:21 #3

• ogryzek

  So can we assume that ATRAC is officially dead ?... Good...
  
  I wish they had enough decency to provide firmware updates for their older media players (in my case one of the fairly recent MiniDisk-HD players/recorders) that would allow for MP3 playback.

  18.6.2007 20:19 #4

• webe123

  Hopefully more and more of the the "rent music" ideas will die! To me, if I want a song I want to own it and do as I please with it...not have some stupid DRM or info file on my song! They can KEEP that idea. I will not buy it as long as they have that stuff on there either. If they cannot trust me, why should I trust THEM?

  18.6.2007 22:13 #5

• editmon

  /Sony Connect was doomed from the start, mainly because of its decision to only include the Sony proprietary format in its downloads, a format that could only be read by Sony's players. There was also a lack of marketing, possibly due to internal disagreements over where the division was heading. /
  
  and the fact that they hacked into consumers computers without any regard to privacy.
  
  Who said corporate mentality doesn't support covert stealing of personal information?

  19.6.2007 05:53 #6

• borhan9

  I agree Sony was doomed at the start if they only went with the Sony alone format :)

  21.6.2007 19:46 #7

• gmontalc

  Sony and all branches "SONY" are a bunch of idiots.
  Sony Ericsson, Sony Walkman, Sony Playstation, Sony Entertainment and what Sony else. does different business.
  
  for example: I own a Sony Ericsson Cell Phone W600i and is not compatible with my PS3 even so the phone has USB port and Bluetooh, either with my Sony MD player. and MD player not with PS3. I talk to Sony Ericsson and they have no idea because is software problems, I talk to Playstation and do not know about phones. and for Mini Disk players there's not drivers software compatibility. and so on.
  
  Sony creates a good product and next product kills it with another product, no further development. And with the Playstation 3 it's going to happend the same. It is already anounce by SONY Playstation that by 2010 will be the Playstation 4 released.

  22.6.2007 20:58 #8