Sony Corp. finally entered the bourgeoning digital music market, launching an online music download service that the electronics and media conglomerate is banking will also generate sales for its line of portable audio players.
The service, dubbed <a href=http://www.connect.com/ target="blank">
Sony Connect</A>, offers more than 500,000 tracks from artists on major and independent labels. Like
Napster 2.0 and the
iTunes Music Store from Apple Computer Inc., Sony Connect sells individual tracks starting at 99 cents and full album downloads beginning at $9.99.
Whether Son'y gamble pays off or not remains to be seen. Competition is fierce, and joining the marketplace a year late makes the road to success a hard one to climb. Sony is a strong force in the industry, but if their focus is to drive sales for their portable devices, let's also hope they put enough focus into maintaining a strong business model for those of us using the service as a standalone product.
Read the AP Report
