Sony to launch Net music service

Sony will launch its own in-house digital music service next year, in a project that will see its music, movie and electronics divisions work closely together, the company said Thursday.

Announced by Sony Corporation Vice Chairman Howard Stringer at an event in Paris, the service appears to be conceived as a rival to Apple's successful iTunes digital music store, and as an attempt to stem its entertainment divisions' perceived losses to file-swapping services like Kazaa. Although details remain scarce, the Sony service as described will be closely tied to the company's consumer-electronics and proprietary copy-protection technologies. The company did not provide information on pricing or business models, although Stringer did describe it as a download service.

Like Apple's before it, Sony's announcement of an online song-sales service is part of a strategy that goes beyond simple music sales. Both companies are trying to make their hardware, from computers to digital music players, the centerpieces of digitally networked homes, and they hope that providing entertainment content directly to consumers will also drive demand for their hardware. Sony, though, has been in a uniquely uncomfortable position straddling the entertainment and consumer-electronics world. Hamstrung in part by its movie and music divisions' fears of digital piracy, it has seen independent companies jump ahead in development and sales of digital music players, while its own copy protection-enabled devices have had only lukewarm appeal.

Earlier Sony-backed digital music efforts, such as subscription company Pressplay--now a part of Roxio's soon-to-be-launched Napster--have not had close connections to the electronics division.

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