Sony, Labels to Rival Apple's ITunes With Music Service

Sony Corp. and the world’s major record labels, are starting their own music streaming service in the U.S. this quarter that will challenge Apple Inc.’s iTunes, after years of letting start-ups license their artists.





Wait, stop, hold the presses!! Did I hear that correctly? The majors are finally waking up out of their technology slumber and jumping on the band wagon after years of licensing music to digital distribution start ups like Itunes, and are now launching a music site that will rival them? The industry has long struggled with how to keep up with consumer's music alternatives like Itunes, Tune Core, garage band, and numerous others, including the illegals like Lime Wire and Pirate Bay. They now may have their answer.

Music Unlimited, which has more than 6 million songs, lets Sony Music Entertainment and partners Universal Music Group, EMI Music and Warner Music Group effectively cut out middle men and gives them more control over revenue.

Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, which Sony unveiled in September, started in the U.K. and Ireland in December and in France, Germany, Italy and Spain this weekend.

The move helps record companies take on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which in February reported its 10 billionth song download. ITunes, introduced in 2001, is the largest destination for buying music in the U.S., bigger than Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., according to researcher NPD Group Inc. As of September, the company had registered 11.7 billion downloads.

Will this finally be the solution that has evaded the majors for years? Only time and consumers will be able to tell. One thing for sure though, this will never slow piracy or new online start ups, that are now popping up like popcorn in a hot microwave. This is something the majors should have jumped on over 20 year ago, when the dawn of the digital revolution was about to bust open the doors to new horizons in the digital music landscape. They too could have been on the learning curve, instead of chasing the front runners and trying to hold on to the old broken industry model of physical distribution.