News Sony unveils music store, gadgets at CES

The big S enters the music store fray - this from C|Net:

LAS VEGAS--Sony Electronics unveiled a slew of new gadgets at the annual Consumer Electronics Show and threw its hat into the ring for music download services as part of its parent company's ongoing efforts to meld its content and electronics businesses.

As expected, the company announced a music download service called Connect, which will be available this spring and will offer more than 500,000 titles for 99 cents per track. The service, demonstrated at CES, will aggregate content from all the major labels and will be run as a wholly owned subsidiary. Connect will be headed by Jay Samit, a former EMI executive, and ATRAC will be the audio format used by the service.

The music download service is part of an effort by its parent company to stem declines in its music division and also to remain competitive with the growing list of rivals, such as Apple Computer, Dell, Microsoft, Wal-Mart and most recently RealNetworks, which are increasingly encroaching into Sony's key electronics and content markets. The service is also part of a larger conglomerate-wide strategy of making its hardware--from computers to digital music players--the centerpieces of digitally networked homes. Sony aims to provide entertainment content directly to consumers, which they are betting will drive demand for their hardware.

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