Sources: Sony considers music downloads for PSP

Sony has spoken with some of the major recording companies about providing music for the PlayStation Portable, music industry sources told CNET News.

The sources said the talks are only preliminary and no deals have been struck. But apparently, Sony is considering offering music on the PlayStation Network, the company's nascent multiplayer gaming and digital download service. Such a move could place the PSP in direct competition with other multiuse music players, most notably the iPhone.

Spokespeople from Sony and the big recording labels declined to comment for this story.

The PSP is a nifty little handheld that plays games, video, and music, but has never fully lived up to its potential, many say. With a larger screen and superior games, the PSP could have rivaled the iPod. The PSP's development, however, was partially hobbled by not offering digital content for download.

PlayStation Portable

(Credit: Sony Corp.)

Instead, Sony early on chose a walled-garden approach to content. To watch videos on the PSP, the company stuck with physical media and required customers to buy Universal Media Discs, the mini DVDs that play only on PSPs. UMDs never caught on, and one reason was that Sony didn't initially offer a means to watch the discs on a television. This meant PSP owners who bought a UMD movie had to pay out again for a DVD if they wanted to watch on a TV.

If you believe the rumors that have flooded the gaming sector in recent months, Sony plans to release a totally revamped PSP. Some reports say the device will feature a larger screen than the PSP 3000 and have slide-out controls--and it will no longer play UMDs. Told that Sony was interested in music for the PSP, Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, a financial services company, applauded the idea.

"This makes total sense that Sony would try to get content for the device," Pachter said. "If Sony is smart, they would manage it the same way iTunes has and be device-agnostic. Whatever you get on a Sony site should play on an iPod as well.

"(Sony) should want that but right now you can't download a Sony PSP game to an iPod Touch because the operating system won't allow it," Pachter added. "I know I can get music from iTunes to the PSP...It's just a question, but I wonder if Sony will configure the PSP so it would be incompatible with iTunes. They could come up with their own proprietary format for music so that MP3s won't work."

As the current music format of choice is MP3, this would be bucking the popular trend in music, to be sure. The PSP currently plays unprotected MP3s and Apple and most other leading download services have removed digital rights management from their songs. Nonetheless, Pachter knows Sony's long history of trying to force proprietary formats on consumers.

Remember the Music Clip, Sony's first digital music player that ignored the public's preferance for MP3 and only played in its own ATRAC3 format? Sony's MiniDisc was supposed to replace the cassette tape but failed to catch on anywhere but Asia.

When it comes to selling music online, Sony hasn't had much luck there either. Connect was Sony's answer to iTunes, but the download service proved hopelessly buggy. Sony shut the service down in August 2007.

The good news for Sony is that CEO Howard Stringer appears willing to adopt a more open approach.

"If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple," Stringer told Nikkei Electronics Asia recently. "Sony hasn't taken open technology very seriously in the past. Its Connect music download service was a failure. It was based on OpenMG, a proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology. At the time, we thought we would make more money that way than with open technology, because we could manage the customers and their downloads.

"This approach, however, created a problem," Stringer said. "Customers couldn't download music from any Web sites except those that contracted with Sony."

This should be welcome news to PSP fans, many of whom consider the device an excellent game and video player. If Stringer is good to his word, and if Sony does offer music downloads, the company apparently won't try to imprison songs in a Sony system.

[monkeyfun14]

Hmm your image has a windows dialogue box on it.

[vmlenigma]

WHY? its easy to load music into the memory stick and play already. They should use the money else where....Like BETTER GAMES, Ipods and Hmmmm Zune (well sort of)(Hardly anyone has one other than the Microsoft employees) are for Music, PSP and Nintendo Portable are for PORTABLE games that .....Keep it That Way!

[tkspyder]

You're probably the first person I have ever heard that wanted to keep their portable device restricted. I, for one, become more and more interested in the PSP as it becomes diversified and flexible.

[cvaldes1831]

Let's not forget that at least one of Stringer's underlings -- Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton -- "hates the Internet." Stringer's gonna have a harder time selling this if his own team isn't on board.

[Maccess]

Zzzz ZZZZ zzzz ZZZZZ zzzzz. Other than die hard PSP fans, no one really cares much anymore. This is eight years too late. Yet, Sony has a real chance to challenge the iPod in terms of a portable device that plays music.

I would have been a PSP fan if it weren't for the mechanical removable storage media. I might look at the new one without the UMD.

[maneeshpan1]

I remember the CONNECT music store but never really used it. From what I heard it sold digital tunes in ATRAC format to work with Sony's own proprietary handheld music players. It never caught on. Even Apple's iTunes/iPod ecosystem was more open by making it easier to rip music CDs to a computer running iTunes and copy to iPod, burn iTunes music playlists to CD etc, remember Apple's mantra rip, mix, burn.

Even before Apple began re-releasing music on iTunes Store as DRM free via iTunes Plus it was more open than Sony CONNECT and is now even more open than it was earlier. Now music bought on iTunes can be more easily copied to non iPod players and copied to Windows Media Player or other media playback apps that are compatible with unprotected AAC related files -- you can also convert a unprotected iTunes Plus music track easily to MP3 so it will work with all players even those that don't work with AAC.

iTunes Plus provides music at a higher audio quality and with no restrictions on usage (yeah for personal fair use!) and since iTunes 8.1 you can also copy your music CDs to iTunes at the same bitrate and quality as iTunes Plus.

[Synthmeister]

PSP is way too late to the party now. The iPod touch is sucking all the oxygen out of the room which PSP should have OWNED! But Sony figured out a way to make everything difficult and more expensive than it should have been, whether it was buying games, loading music or movies, not to mention the idea of WiFI internet, e-mail or IM.

In order to compete, Sony would have to get a new device out the door NOW, and set up an online store as simple and seamless as the iTunes/App store which means they would have to abandon proprietary physical media, one of their most holy, sacred cows.

[chrisdq82]

This is RETARDED!!!!! they haven't even taken advantage of their Playstation Network anyways! To be fare, neither has Nintendo taken full advantage of the Wii Shop Channel. I know for a fact there are MILLIONS of losers who would fork over cash to play "Final Fantasy VII International" on their PSP, and though Sony knows this they sit on their hands and don't release it. In the same vein there are games for Wii's Shop Channel that I've been waiting for a LONG TIME to be released *cough* Earthbound *cough* and while Japan gets all the good stuff and it would NOT be hard to port all of this stuff since they've already been translated to english back in the 90's, they have no excuses when they whine about "not making enough money". Wanna make a dollar Sony? Why don't you start releasing what your customers actually want then!?

You too Nintendo! You're on notice!