Comments on: Sony Music woes extend to digital sales

With everyone focused on Sony's troubles with Rick Rubin, Apple, and lower revenue, perhaps nobody noticed the label's tumbling share of digital market.

[RobertAPierce]

Sony's woes can't be traced back to a single product or initiative, I see it as the result of a general air of contempt sony seems to have for their concumer base. Plenty of examples of that, the rootkit fiasco, collecting information on kids without consent, DRM riddled products etc etc. Sony's image as a top-notch electronics producer is simply not strong enough to offset their new image as a large company with contempt for consumers, and it's finally catching up to them.

[gerrrg]

It's easy to figure this one out.

If you can't find the song/album you want from a particular artist in digital format for purchase, then the next likely method of getting that song/album is to grab it for free from someplace else that has it.

Going to the brick and mortar store to listen to tracks in 2009 is antiquated. The new way is to sign yourself in online and browse the tracks of hundreds of thousands of artists all grouped by genre.

As a record label, if your artists aren't online and widely available, too bad for you and your artists. Charge too much for each song, and see your sales plunge. This is not your mama's CD store.

[gertruded]

Since the root kit fiasco I have not purchase one Sony CD. I will never buy one again either. Sony can keep all of their DRM. I do not, nor shall I have, a Blue Ray player on the movie side either.

Just say NO to dracoian DRM.

[umbrae]

Karma. Sony has done so many evil things; all mentioned in the article and the comments. Spying, Rootkits, etc. Many of their newer products are just scams to make money off parts by linking unrelated parts to the same circuit so it one goes they all go.

Personally I think they world would be a better place without them. At least, maybe all the leadership in the company will be canned and replaced with ethical people (if any exist in todays world).

[technologyRules]

I think it's a little unreasonable to portray Sony so negatively on an ethical basis. Granted, the root kit issue was a misstep, but this was years ago and it was Sony BMG. Compared to the behavior of other coporate giants like Microsoft, they look pretty good. Lets not make up things about circuit design.

Sony's efforts in environmental stewardship tend to lead their competitors. They also invest heavily in R&D, take more risks, and innovate on the electronics side more than their competitors.

It's never black and white.

[Dalkorian]

Your thinly veiled attempt at avoiding apologies and making excuses for one of the more evil corporations is laughable at best. Hopefully that check Sony sent you for prostituting yourself like that helps you to sleep at night.

[friday04]

You are mistaking Sony with Sony BMG. Two different companies with 2 different goals.

<i>They shouldn't be</i> but they are.

I remember reading a story when Sony was trying to combat the iTunes/iPod paradigm with their own Sony Connect/Walkman brand. If anyone could unseat Apple, so early in Apple's rise, it would be Sony. But Sony created separate business units with separate business leaders with separate business agendas. And they screwed it all up because they're too big and they could care less about the customer.

So the hardware group, Sony, created really good Walkman hardware which is something they've always done. You like this group. This is the group so many people associate with Sony. It's a good group and they really do make some amazing hardware.

But the hardware group doesn't own the content to Sony's entertainment group, Sony BMG. They had to request access to Sony BMG's catalog of music so they could at least compete with iTunes. But Sony BMG said no! They actually said no to their own hardware group. So when Sony Connect launched it was with music from all of the other labels except their own, Sony BMG. Clearly Sony BMG didn't learn squat from this as they did the exact same thing to the Sony Ericsson mobile group where they were the last major label to sign.

Instead of Sony beating Apple at their own game, Sony got caught up in the empirical corporate grand standing of their own design. They screwed themselves.

And of course we can't forget Sony's insistence that those original PMP Walkman's only worked with their proprietary ATRAC system. No support for MP3, AAC, or even WMA. ATRAC-only. This is a corporate stance for most of Sony's products. They want to control the format of the media as well as the hardware. This has often backfired in Sony's face with Betamax, PSP movies, MiniDisc, and Sony Memory Stick. I'm not sure who to blame for that one. There is probably another group above all of the other groups that comes up with proprietary formats that they can try to cram into everything.

[friday04]

Please replace Sony Connect with Sonicgate in my rant above. I had forgotten the name of the service (what a surprise)

[bobby_brady]

Sony = Rootkit. Let's not forget that. They deserve to go under. I hope they do.

[C.Schroeder]

I do think DRM of various forms is at the root of Sony's woes, with the rootkit fiasco topping the list. Add to it their putting up their own on-line music store using proprietary DRM. How many "free" Pressplay songs did they manage to give away via the Coke Rewards program I wonder? Going back further, the Sony mini-disc was hobbled with the same DRM that killed Digital Audio Tape (DAT) as a consumer format. By the time prosumer mini-disc decks were available that could switch off the DRM for end-user created recordings, recording technology had moved on making the mini-disc irrelevant, and in the portable playback market it was eclipsed by the ever more capable (and shrinking) MP3 players.

Then there's BD+, and Sony wonders why Blu-ray sales have slowed now that the hi-def video format battle is over? HD DVD, despite its own DRM, would have been a more consumer friendly hi-def source product, but I digress. Sony must become more consumer friendly if it expects to survive in the digital age.

[loose_screw]

I just wish Sony would die already. They tried, and continue to try to push DRM/proprietary formats down the consumers' throats (ATRAC/Sonicgate -- dead, UMD -- so universal that it is used on all of ONE device?, Memory $tick, non-3.5mm jacks on SE phones, etc.) and try to charge an absurd price premium on their products.

Sony was a great company in the analog days and before becoming a media company. Now it's just a consumer unfriendly company that just needs to go the way of the dinosaur.

[tkspyder]

Your comment should voice far past Sony. The biggest companies in the industry have done a lot worse to consumers. Microsoft makes us all so reliant on their OS, we put up with VISTA and its sluggish performance and incompatible applications. And Apple has many proprietary devices and software that only work on Mac/Apple products.
Also, without competition like Sony, do you really think you?d be paying the same price for your iPod, MAC, or music?
Granted, I think every single person responsible for the Rootkit issue should be fired, and Sony should start fresh. But to say only Sony tries to push proprietary formats on its consumers is thinking way too obtuse.

[loose_screw]

I think you're talking about something different entirely. I can run MS software on 90% of hardware out there, and my ipod & itunes run fine with my Windows PCs. However, I can use a memory stick or UMD in any of my non-Sony electronics.

Sony has hardly provided any competition to industry leaders like Apple and Microsoft thanks to its lack of innovation. What has Sony come up with in the past 5 years that has propelled Apple to do anything new and innovative? Nothing that I can think of.

Yeah. I bought a PSP but eventually became so disgusted by the fact that it couldn't use normal SD cards but instead required the special Sony MemorySuck (I mean, MemoryStick. Excuse me.) at twice the price that I sold it on e-bay and haven't bought a Sony device since. (Thier cameras and phones are equally guilty of this.)

Their prices have never been what I would consider competitive, but at least they once could claim to have superior quality products. However, long ago the Samsungs and Toshiba's of the world surpassed them on most fronts so I have pretty much sworn off their brand for life. I can find equivalents from other companies who actually view me as a customer they must earn brand loyalty from rather than a money font that they can simply attempt to suck dry by roping me into buying their proprietary formats that I can't use on devices by other manufacturers. The fact that Sony products are still more expensive than other brands in many cases is just pure lunacy and hubris on their part and it will eventually be their downfall when other people finally see through the ruse.

[sderf]

I thought all their troubles were accredited to all the people that were copying their music. That doesn't seem to be such a big deal now does it. I wonder how much money they paid the RIIA

[Axiomatic13]

When Sony BMG's business model is diametrically opposed to everything their customers believe in their business is going to suffer. It's pure arrogance that is keeping SonyBMG afloat at the moment and until they re-learn to embrace their consumers desires they will continue to falter.

As an owner of a PS3 I really want them to succeed, but not if they are going to continually violate my fair use rights and limit my use of my Sony hardware devices.

Consumer is KING.