Filed under: Web services, P2P
Sony confirms closure of 'Connect' music store - paying customers get stung by DRM
Sony's Connect music store has been around a fair while, in fact, a fair while longer than perhaps some of us expected. Sony -- a company once so powerful and successful in portable music -- cooked up the Connect service as a response to Apple's all-powerful iTunes Store. The plan was a store to supply music to the dozen or so users who bought one of its NetMD or MP3 players, and couldn't play media on these devices in a format other than Sony's proprietary ATRAC-3 format.*Of course, Sony is also a record-label and (as with all of Sony's digital music efforts) the Connect service was clearly put in front of some executives who were absolutely terrified of the 'Cloverfield monster' otherwise known as piracy. The executives, so hell-bent on protecting their content, forgot that actually they had to sell the service to the public and decided that they'd allow Connect, but that the DRM would be so visible and limited that no-one would dare think of pirating music again. If you hadn't guessed, here at Download Squad, some of us have 'issues' with Sony's digital mis-steps -- issues best explained in another post -- so we'll skip forward to the present day.
Sony has, as announced, re-affirmed their plans to pull the plug on the North American Connect store at the end of March. Not only is the store closing, but if you upgrade your computer in the future, you can kiss goodbye to any tracks you previously bought. This tidbit is taken from the Sony FAQs:
"What will happen to my library (content I own)?
You will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage library and on your ATRAC player. For music purchased via CONNECT, this means you may continue to enjoy it as usual in your current PC configuration in accordance with our terms of use."
That's right, through the joys of DRM -- if you change your computer, your Connect-purchased music will no longer play. Though it's been said routinely before, we'll state it again. DRM does not prevent piracy. DRM merely shafts loyal, paying customers who choose to legitimately obtain their media online. More often than not, those customers are not so tech-savvy, and end up being stung by stores such as Google Video and Connect shutting up shop.
Much to our chagrin, Sony is now touting that "We are moving to the open Windows Media platform in North America." As a hint for future reference: there's nothing 'open' about the Windows Media platform. Not that you were planning to buy anything from a future Sony music store anyway.
Download Squad does not condone or encourage the illicit downloading & sharing of any copyrighted works.
[Via BoingBoing]
"What will happen to my library (content I own)?
You will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage library and on your ATRAC player. For music purchased via CONNECT, this means you may continue to enjoy it as usual in your current PC configuration in accordance with our terms of use."
That's right, through the joys of DRM -- if you change your computer, your Connect-purchased music will no longer play. Though it's been said routinely before, we'll state it again. DRM does not prevent piracy. DRM merely shafts loyal, paying customers who choose to legitimately obtain their media online. More often than not, those customers are not so tech-savvy, and end up being stung by stores such as Google Video and Connect shutting up shop.
Much to our chagrin, Sony is now touting that "We are moving to the open Windows Media platform in North America." As a hint for future reference: there's nothing 'open' about the Windows Media platform. Not that you were planning to buy anything from a future Sony music store anyway.
Download Squad does not condone or encourage the illicit downloading & sharing of any copyrighted works.
[Via BoingBoing]