Aug 31
Sony shuttering Connect music store and ditching proprietary audio format
FRANKFURT: Acknowledging that its proprietary audio technology was a marketplace flop, Sony said Thursday it planned to shutter its Connect digital music store and open its portable media players to other formats.
The moves were announced in Berlin in advance of the Friday opening of the International Funkausstellung, or IFA, the largest consumer electronics trade fair in Europe. Sony also introduced a pair of digital Walkmans that can play the Windows Media Audio, MP3 and AAC audio formats.
The Sony NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610 can also play video and display photographs, and include an FM tuner.
Sony said it would phase out operations of its struggling Connect online retailer, which sold songs in the company's proprietary ATRAC format.
“This gives customers greater flexibility in their music software approach,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, Sony will be phasing out the Connect Music Services based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe.”
In an e-mail sent to Connect users, the service said it would not close before March 2008, but it did not set a more specific date. The company's Connect e-book service for the Sony Reader is not affected.
In June, Sony Connect said it was eliminating some positions as part of a restructuring plan to shift resources to other online services, but had denied reports it was related to a planned shutdown.
Instead, the company said it was shifting its emphasis to other network services, specifically one for users of the PlayStation video game console, the company said.
Sony Connect launched in 2004, but like other online music services it has had a tough time competing against Apple's iTunes Store, which is tied to the market-leading iPod portable player.
The new Walkman video players store up to 1,850 average-length MP3 songs on the 8 gigabyte models, 925 on the 4 gigabyte models and 440 on the 2 gigabyte models. Prices range from $120 to $230.
Sony said that the new Walkman video players would ship with Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11 to manage digital libraries.