currybetdotnet Sony archive

Sony finally ready to disconnect music store
Sony have just announced the final steps towards the closure of the Sony CONNECT Music Store that I worked on when I was with Sony NetServices in Austria. They are taking a two-step approach. The whole service will cease on March 31st 2008, but before that, on March 1st, the online component - http://www.connect-europe.com - will be closed. That always, in my view, should have been the unique advantage the Sony service had. Unlike the iTunes music store, which required...

Read the full post - Published February 4, 2008 in Music, Sony

Sony closes the door on the European CONNECT store
With an irony that even Alanis Morissette couldn't mistake for being unlucky, just as I've written a lengthy blog series about the closure of one music store where I used to work, another music store that I used to do work for has announced it is shutting down - Sony Connect Europe. The circumstances are a little different - one went bankrupt, the other is a strategic pull-out from a market area where Sony was simply unable to compete with...

Read the full post - Published September 5, 2007 in Music, Sony

My Sony and BBC Wikipedia editing shame
There has been quite a fuss this week about edits made to Wikipedia from within the BBC. Changing George Walker Bush to George Wanker Bush using a BBC IP address is pretty damn stupid, but writing an article accusing other organisations of manipulating Wikipedia in a bad way, without first checking whether you had your own IP address related skeletons in the closet was even sillier. The story feeds wonderfully into the paranoia of those who believe the BBC is...

Read the full post - Published August 20, 2007 in BBC, Sony, Web, iPlayer

The Rhino Hi-Fives reinvent the 'Greatest Hits EP' for the digital era
When I was writing last week about the relaunch of the Sony Connect music download store in Europe, I mentioned a promotion for "Rhino Hi-Fives", and I wanted to look at the content of that promotion in a little more detail, and examine the way it represents a reaction to some changes in the consumption of music. The Rhino Hi-Fives are a series of five-track downloads from a particular artist. Rhino Hi-Fives are the first ever product line created exclusively...

Read the full post - Published April 20, 2007 in Music, Sony

Sony Connect music download store relaunches in Europe - part two
Yesterday I was writing about the new design of Sony's European 'Connect' music download store. Before Christmas I worked on the information architecture and wireframes for the relaunch of the service. As ever, during the course of a web site launch some compromises have to be made between design and implementation, and there are some areas of the new version of the site which I don't think are yet working to their optimum, or quite as they were designed. Some...

Read the full post - Published April 13, 2007 in Music, Sony, Usability

Sony Connect relaunches with improved information architecture for browsing
One of the projects I worked on before Christmas at Sony NetServices in Austria was the information architecture and wireframes for a redesign of Sony's European music download service - Sony Connect. The service allows users to buy music for upload onto their digital Sony Walkman devices. This is handled by Sony's SonicStage music management software, and the Connect store acts as a web interface into the service over the internet, and then as an embedded store when you are...

Read the full post - Published April 12, 2007 in Music, Sony, Usability

Vodafone relaunches their web music store in the UK
Whilst working at Sony over the last 6 months I haven't really been able to write about it very much on currybetdotnet - in stark contrast to the way I used to blog the absolute minutiae of working at the BBC. This was mostly due to the fact that the part of Sony I was working in, Sony NetServices, acts as a service provider for other parts of the Sony empire and other large European brands like Vodafone and I...

Read the full post - Published April 4, 2007 in Music, Sony

Slacker equivalent already on the market in Europe - meet Sony and Vodafone's Radio DJ
There has been a bit of a buzz around the announcement of a service called Slacker in the USA, which will be a device which plays personalised radio stations to the user on the go. Matt Marshall at VentureBeat even touted it as a potential "iPod killer". As I read through the promised feature-set, I started to get a little nagging voice in my head, saying "Hang on, isn't....this....what...I..do?" Because for the last few months I've been working on...

Read the full post - Published March 14, 2007 in Apple, Mobiles, Music, Radio, Sony

Getting Sony's SonicStage for Christmas
Whilst it wasn't traditional link bait in the sense of trying to get something onto the front page of Digg, when my good friend Frankie recently wrote about his experience of using Sony's SonicStage software, he must have known that I wouldn't be able to resist responding. First off I must say I thought Frankie gave a very honest account of using and installing the software. He was using the CD supplied with the player to install it, so I...

Read the full post - Published January 15, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music, Sony

Sony loses DRM court case in France over the Sony Connect store
There has been a dribble of coverage recently that Sony has lost a court case in France over the inclusion of DRM restrictions with content downloaded from the Sony Connect store. The verdict was apparently delivered on December 15th, but only just seems to be making news following an announcement by the group taking the action, the Union Federale des Consommateurs - Que Choisir. Sony themselves have so far declined to comment as far as I can tell. The case...

Read the full post - Published January 10, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music, Sony

The new UK digital singles chart tries to avoid the old hype

Published January 7, 2007 in Music, Sony, Walthamstow

Sony launches new Christmas promotional pages on the Connect store

Published December 19, 2006 in Music, Sony

Right to reply, but no right to network privacy with Newscounter

Published December 4, 2006 in Media, Sony

Christmas arrives at Connect

Published November 21, 2006 in Music, Sony

Sony launches a new version of the Connect store in Europe

Published November 13, 2006 in Music, Sony

Are corporations always wrong to engage with the "grey" market?

Published October 26, 2006 in BBC, Media, Sony

New job with Sony in Austria

Published September 19, 2006 in Austria, Sony

OpenMG Pre-Ripped for PC

Published October 13, 2004 in DRM, Music, Sony

Murder by Playstation?

Published July 29, 2004 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Sony