Sony Debuts "Sony Connect" Online Music Service

[Audioholics]

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.&nbsp;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

 

[av_phile]

Seems the prognostics of Morgan and Stanley about online distribution as becoming the wave of the future for digital music is fast becoming a reality. I have always wondered why the studios never bothered to overhaul their pricing model for CDs. And they wonder that the internet has been bludgeoning their precious profit margins.