Good Bye Sony Connect Music Service

Well today is the day when Connect service from Sony is no longer available. If you access their website you will be greeted with the following message:

“Thank you for being a customer of the CONNECT™ Music store.

Now that the music store is closed, you will not be able to purchase or download music, but you will be able to continue to use several features to maintain your library through the end of 2008.

For your convenience we are maintaining our servers to allow you to authorize new devices and computers to play back your purchased ATRAC content. We still recommend that you back up your music library and have provided instructions in the help section on how to do so.

Please click here for information concerning how to continue enjoying your existing ATRAC music library in SonicStage, or how to convert and transfer your existing ATRAC music library to another application.

If you own an ATRAC-based Walkman® device, you can continue using it to enjoy your ripped CDs and music purchases from a fast-growing number of DRM-free, MP3 download services.

Thank you for your patronage during the life of CONNECT.

Sincerely, the CONNECT team.”

I remember the time when they were about to open and there were a few beta invites to preview the service. The store had some good selection of music and frankly I had a number of free codes to use, so I never paid for the music. I guess SonicStage will stay at 4.3 version for the US and Europe, until it is finally forgotten and not supported by the forthcoming OSes. Sad, huh? However, the show must go on… Supposedly, according to AP, Sony BMG Music Entertainment “is developing an online music subscription service that would give users unlimited access to its music and be compatible with a host of digital music players.” We will see more and more services offering DRM-free music, something Sony has always been against and fought hard, but the users dictate the trends, and it is amazing to see Sony finally listen to its customers (though a bit too late frankly).

Ironically, Engadget posted today a Hands on Review of the latest Bluetooth enabled Sony Walkman – NWZ-A829. It is a short one, but gives an idea of what to expect. I was surprised that it sounded pretty welcoming. Every year we are hoping and expecting Sony to release something really ground-breaking and cool, and I totally agree with one of the commenters there that said the following: “I feel that Sony has so much potential in this field, to put together a really stylish portable media player that has great functionality, user friendliness and features. yet time and time again they release something that is ok, but not something that is awesome. come on Sony you have it in you!”

However you never know with Sony, one of their bright engineers might come up with an innovative idea and bring to us a revolutionary device – Walkman was once before….

Have a good week guys!

Stan M.