Sony Music Facing Difficulties

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It almost seems impossible to run a successful music company these days. With digital downloads of music destroying physical media, the industry is once again at the drawing board as to how they can make the most money off music. There are several ventures finding good fortune, such as iTunes, but it doesn’t go much farther than that. Sony BMG, which is now Sony Music, has been plagued with various woes in the last few years (rootkit debacle, revenue woes, etc) and the hits are starting to take its toll. Columnist Greg Sandoval of CNET writes, “As for Sony Music’s digital efforts, the news isn’t any less gloomy. The company’s market share of digital album and song sales has plunged from 28.6 percent at the time of the merger to 22.5 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.” He continues, “As the company’s share of digital music has declined, Warner Music’s has increased. Warner’s share of digital sales jumped from 18.10 percent in 2004, to 22.08 percent in 2008.”

What can Sony Music do for itself to turn things around? It probably wouldn’t hurt if they made a store that all networked Sony devices could access that sold all of the music in Sony’s catalog. Then make a website where people could buy, sample, rate, and review music. I don’t think Sony Electronics and Sony Music are working as closely as they could – not saying they aren’t working together whatsoever, but it seems like they could have a stronger relationship. What do you think?

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11
Feb 2009
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Corporate

DISCUSSION 8 Comments
  • TheFaze

    As I’ve said before… it shouldn’t be so hard to put in a music section on the Playstation Store. It’s basically video-less video, for crying out loud. Right now, only the PS3, PSP, and PC can connect to the store, right? How about giving access to the new Walkman, SE phones, and anything else. How hard could that possibly be? Seriously, there are times when I think they DON’T want to make money. Idiocy…

  • TheFaze

    As I’ve said before… it shouldn’t be so hard to put in a music section on the Playstation Store. It’s basically video-less video, for crying out loud. Right now, only the PS3, PSP, and PC can connect to the store, right? How about giving access to the new Walkman, SE phones, and anything else. How hard could that possibly be? Seriously, there are times when I think they DON’T want to make money. Idiocy…

  • Xbot

    Everybody in the music and movie business is facing diffculties because of piracy, not just Sony,universal and many other are facing the same problems..

    i dont think the problem is the Store, for example apple forces you to use itunes on your ipods yet about 90% of music played in ipods is pirated so that doesnt make any difference.

  • Xbot

    Everybody in the music and movie business is facing diffculties because of piracy, not just Sony,universal and many other are facing the same problems..

    i dont think the problem is the Store, for example apple forces you to use itunes on your ipods yet about 90% of music played in ipods is pirated so that doesnt make any difference.

  • theFanboy

    digital music store is the most important thing needed for walkman, SE phone and sony music…………..BUT still no sony executive will take any action…
    and then there is Stringer, who keeps saying “all our products will be networked” and sony is unique because we have “content industry”……
    WHERE IS THE INTEGRATION ????

  • theFanboy

    digital music store is the most important thing needed for walkman, SE phone and sony music…………..BUT still no sony executive will take any action…
    and then there is Stringer, who keeps saying “all our products will be networked” and sony is unique because we have “content industry”……
    WHERE IS THE INTEGRATION ????

  • ascariss

    for me it is not piracy that is the issue, it is the style of music, with my preferred genre of music not being on any sony label and only a few that are, are just remixes of various pop songs, which I pass on.

    I don’t use itunes, and do not buy from the apple any music since I prefer my songs in either 320 or wav format.

    Sony has a few options, cheaper cd prices or digital downloads on other websites around the world, not just specific markets.

  • ascariss

    for me it is not piracy that is the issue, it is the style of music, with my preferred genre of music not being on any sony label and only a few that are, are just remixes of various pop songs, which I pass on.

    I don’t use itunes, and do not buy from the apple any music since I prefer my songs in either 320 or wav format.

    Sony has a few options, cheaper cd prices or digital downloads on other websites around the world, not just specific markets.