PSP World

Is Sony Thinking iTunes on PSP?

According to sources inside the music industry, Sony is considering a music download service that would be accessible from the PSP handheld. While no official confirmations have yet been made, adding music to the popular PSN service (which already offers movies and games) would be a logical step for the company. Sony has publicly stated in many different venues that it would like to see its PSP gaming device rival the popularity of its Walkman cassette player; a downloadable music service would have the potential to update the mass-market gadget for the twenty-first century.

Sony Music Entertainment, which includes BMG, Columbia, and Epic Records, is the second-largest music publishing label in the world. In order to launch a competitive music download service, Sony would have to secure participation from the other three major global record labels: EMI, Universal, and Warner Music.

Several important questions remain, and they could make the difference between customer adoption and failure for the music download service. Consumers these days are extremely fickle when it comes to digital distribution, and one of the critical issues is their ability to own and use purchased media across a variety of devices. If Sony or its record label partners insisted on applying draconian DRM (Digital Rights Management) software to downloaded songs, consumers might decide to stick with Apple's iTunes, which currently offers DRM-free music.

The other looming question is pricing, which would obviously have a considerable impact on the willingness of consumers to adopt the service. Both Sony and Microsoft have been criticized for the high price of downloadable movie content on their respective services, something that does not bode well for an eventual foray into music.

A third consideration is design and usability of the service. Sony's previous attempt at competing with iTunes, called "Connect", was shut down in 2007 after failing to impress users.

Screenshot of Sony's failed Connect music download service.

[Source: CNET]