In a major strategic shift, consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. said on Thursday its digital music devices will soon play MP3 song files.
The Walkman creator has long insisted its digital music players support only its proprietary ATRAC format, a move that has annoyed some Sony aficionados and allowed more accommodating music players like Apple Computer's iPod to dent Sony's long established dominance in the portable music business.
The MP3 format is far and away the most commonly used digital music format, one that is supported by most major device manufacturers.
"It will be done within a short while," Robert Ashcroft, Sony Europe's senior vice president of network services, told Reuters.
"It's being done for those people who already have a large music collection in the MP3 format. It will now be quicker for them to add their collection from their PC to a Sony device if they choose to leave it in the naked MP3 format," he said.
He added the products being considered for MP3 support are Sony's flash memory storage players and hard-disc players, such as the new 20 gigabyte hard-drive Walkman.
Song downloads sold on Sony's online music store, Sony Connect, will still be offered in the ATRAC format only, he said.
Necessary move
Historically, Sony has been very protective of its technology. The strategy shift, which was first reported on technology news Web site ZDNet France, surprised some analysts.
"In supporting MP3, this would be Sony's first compromise step, but it's a significant way to open up to a more mainstream audience and a necessary move if it is to compete with the iPod," said Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan.
Currently, to play an MP3 file on a Sony music player, the user must use Sony software to convert the song into Sony's ATRAC format, a cumbersome procedure that tends to reduce the sound quality of the newly formatted file, Mulligan said.
Having a digital music player that's open to multiple formats is seen as a must-have feature if Sony is to woo back customers who have switched to the iPod.
While the move is significant, Mulligan pointed out it will have little impact on the music download market.
The major record labels, including EMI, Universal Music , Warner Music and the soon-to-form Sony BMG, insist all downloads they supply to online music stores come encoded in a digital rights management (DRM) technology that prevents mass duplication.
But competing DRM technologies mean consumers have little to no choice about which portable music devices they can use to play their purchased downloads.
Ashcroft said Sony supports interoperable DRM technologies, but believes it would be a mistake if the industry went with a single standard. "That would stifle innovation," he said.
More than 10 million digital music players are expected to be sold this year, according to London-based research firm Informa Media. Sony has recently announced launch plans for a hard-drive based players to chip away at Apple's lead.
