Sony Hoping to Pull Music From iTunes Store If 'Music Unlimited' Service Succeeds

[MacRumors]

According to The Age, Sony is looking to its new "Music Unlimited" streaming service not only as an opportunity to grab a piece of the digital music pie but also in hopes of one day being able to pull its music from Apple's iTunes Store entirely.

If Music Unlimited becomes popular it will provide a credible alternative to iTunes for music publishers, including Sony Music Entertainment, which includes Bob Dylan, Beyonce, Guy Sebastian and Delta Goodrem in its stable of artists.

''If we do [get mass take up] then does Sony Music need to provide content to iTunes?'' Mr Ephraim asked. ''Currently we do. We have to provide it to iTunes as that's the format right now.

''Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.''

Apple and Sony have recently faced off over App Store content as well, with Apple reportedly rejecting Sony's eBook software from the App Store due to new enforcement of Apple's rules requiring content purchases to be made available through the company's in-app purchasing mechanism.

Apple itself has been rumored many times over the years to be developing a subscription and/or streaming music service, presumably utilizing the capacity of its new North Carolina data center, but the company has reportedly yet to get music labels on board with the plan.

Sony's goal of pulling music from iTunes is of course dependent on a viable alternative such as Music Unlimited developing, something that has yet to occur as evidenced by Apple continuing to hold the lion's share of the digital music market.

Article Link: Sony Hoping to Pull Music From iTunes Store If 'Music Unlimited' Service Succeeds

 

[JPark]

Since iTunes is the largest distributor of music in any form, I'd wager that this never happens.

 

[Fainer]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Never happen.

 

[protox]

IMHO, if Apple keeps playing hardball with everyone, eventually this will be their downfall. Everyone will eventually get sick and tired of it and pull the plug on them.

 

[Mac21ND]

Since iTunes is the largest distributor of music in any form, I'd wager that this never happens.

+1

Same reason they'll never pull their music form Walmart for their SonyStyle stores too.

 

[FriarNurgle]

That's like a cattle farmer saying they will no longer sell beef to McDonalds because they are opening up a little dinner on the side of the road.

This will never happen.

 

[MarkNY]

LOL. That'll work out well for Sony. Just what Sony needs to be blowing money on -- on alternative music distribution mechanism. Most likely, Sony wants to tie some new DRM format to Sony hardware to prop it up. Else, why bother?

 

[xnu]

Even if that is goal, what is the point of announcing it? Seems childish.

You can make that threat when you have something to back it up.

I however will stop buying Apple products as soon as I produce my own phone, computer, ipod + software.

 

[nwcs]

I could see them doing this if the money is there. But I'd say what is more likely to happen is that prices would go up for other distributors if Sony's streaming service works out. While music sales will never disappear I could see it go into decline if there's too much instability in where you can get music. People will resort to other outlets.

 

[jaw04005]

LOL. The labels already get 70+ percent of the sale of an iTunes single (likely more for some artists and even more for complete albums).

How greedy can you get? I guess they want a slice of Apple's iPod, iPhone and iPad hardware pie. Good luck on that.

 

[iPhoneCollector]

sony would be really stupid if they did that

 

[435713]

LOL. That'll work out well for Sony. Just what Sony needs to be blowing money on -- on alternative music distribution mechanism. Most likely, Sony wants to tie some new DRM format to Sony hardware to prop it up. Else, why bother?

I want to know where the F Sony gets all this money. They lost tons on the P3, TV's aren't doing that well. I guess music and movie studios. They seem to have some endless supply of cash, or debt.

A guy above said Apple playing hardball with everyone would maybe be their downfall but truth is all big corps are the same. Just a big rat race.

 

[Nightarchaon]

so sony pulls its music from the itunes store,

then what ? you need to buy a SONY branded player to access to the Music Unlimited service ? Because im damned sure Apple wont let an APP on the store that allows access to it, and unlike a lot of iTunes content i see sony DRMing content up to the wazoo

Sony are going to have to either suck it up and realise that Apple got there 1st and did to digital music what Sony did in the HD format wars, killed the competition, Sony, live with it, you won Blue Ray over HD-DVD, you lost Digital Music.

 

[roland.g]

All that means is those Sony artists will suffer in sales due to lack of iTS availability. Bad strategy. The best marketing is multiple outlets. Not closing one down because another is now available. Sounds like typical closed minded stupidity.

 

[jclardy]

IMHO, if Apple keeps playing hardball with everyone, eventually this will be their downfall. Everyone will eventually get sick and tired of it and pull the plug on them.

It could happnen that way, but first someone has to build a worthy competitor to the iTunes store that people actually use.

I use Amazon MP3 a lot (Pretty much only for the $5 albums), but I saw some stats that Amazon has less than 10% of the digital music market share. If a retail giant like Amazon can't take more market share from iTunes when it offers many albums for 50% off then I have a hard time believing that Sony can do it.

 

[newtonrj]

Sony's money grab

''Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.''

. . . as in we want to charge more, deliver only albums, and limit purchases to rentals. Yeah, we used to be the greatest then file-sharing killed our model. Apple saved us by giving us money but now we want it all agian.

 

[See Flat]

IMHO, if Apple keeps playing hardball with everyone, eventually this will be their downfall. Everyone will eventually get sick and tired of it and pull the plug on them.

I see your point. You mean like all suppliers don't want to deal with Wall Mart any more.
How aggressive was Sony's statement? Something like "IF our new service is successful... we might pull out of iTunes altogether" ?

 

[al2o3cr]

This sounds like a pretty stupid plan, but it's certainly in line with what Sony's entertainment division has dreamed of for years: erasing the "L" from the PLAY button.

 

[roland.g]

I love to point out that many people will think "yeah Sony, take down greedy Apple. All they ever want is their greedy 30% take on someone else's product/art." What those many and most people never seem to realize is that Apple's 30% take in all iTunes Music/Movie/etc. and App Store sales does is allow that part of their business to break even or slightly better. Of Apple's profits each year, not gross sales, but net profits, their profits in the iTS, ie. 30% take, is less than 3% of the company's overall profits. In other words, it is barely more than a break even. They simply operate for one goal and one goal only: to move hardware. That is what generates profit at Apple.

 

[KnoxHarrington]

I would say that Sony would never do this, but they are definitely stupid enough to try.

Seriously, it's hard for me to think of a major company that makes more stupid decisions from Sony. There seems to be a company-wide arrogance that permeates the entire company, that thinks that people should buy their stuff simply because they're Sony.

It's like what Mac-haters say about Apple -- except it's true in this case.

 

[messele]

No problem Sony, make it more difficult for me to legally access music and I'll either stop listening to your new releases or else I'll just download them. It's not like I'm going to give up my investment in Apple Hardware and iTunes is it?

Restrict access, invite piracy Simple.

 

[ziggyonice]

Sony Hoping to Pull Music From iTunes Store If 'Music Unlimited' Service Succeeds

Hint: it won't succeed.

 

[topmounter]

If Music Unlimited becomes popular it will provide a credible alternative to iTunes for music publishers, including Sony Music Entertainment,


Honestly... how is it going to be a "credible alternative... for music publishers" if it isn't a CREDIBLE ALTERNATIVE FOR CONSUMERS first?!?

 

[Tones2]

As long as they don't ALSO pull from Amazon, I could care less. I don't care where I get a download from. As long as it's similarly priced, DRM free, and of the same quality (256 kbps).

Tony

 

[rstansby]

If I win the lottery I might quit my job.

I think I have about as much chance of winning the lottery as Sony has of making a music subscription service that brings them the amount of revenue that iTunes does.