Sony completely loses the plot with “Network Walkman”
Got an excited little email the other day from a PR wonk for Sony:
Some of the UK’s most celebrated artists are all impatiently tapping their toes while they wait to receive their new Sony Hi-MD WALKMAN.
Air, Basement Jaxx, Razorlight, The Coral, The Ravonettes, MC Solaar and Armin Van Buuren are just a handful of Europe’s finest musical talent who are on the waiting list for the brand new Sony Hi-MD WALKMAN.
These artists have all joined the Hi-MD queue – not wanting to miss out on the latest sexy Sony technology. With their new Sony Hi-MD WALKMAN they will be able to record their shows live and, for the first time, they will be able to record up to 45 hours of music onto one disc. (See what sort of junk I have to read? And you think *I* write rubbish. This sort of stuff is mind-rotting.)
So, I asked, are they paying for it? And would they just happen to be Sony-signed artists? Oh, no, they’re getting them for free. And, golly gosh, they all have some sort of contract with Sony. Isn’t that remarkable?
However as Michael Gartenberg points out, Sony has gone completely boffo on this one and priced its “Network Walkman HD-1″ at $100 above the 20Gb iPod. Mad, or what? Even free downloads off nice sites on the Net won’t play on it, because they’re MP3, and it insists on ATRAC-3. Truly, Sony’s content tail is wagging the consumer electronics dog, and it’s an ugly sight.
I remember the first Walkman: it was brilliant. Being able to carry around your music and listen to it, well, it was a revolution. This is just stupid.
Perhaps the Coral et al will be able to sell theirs as collectors’ items on eBay if they don’t take them out of the box. Like Betamax stuff - they could sell it to the Science Museum.
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August 5th, 2004 at 2:17 am
Oh, I totally agree Sony is off their rocker here. What I want to know is, what musician that cares to make a live recording would want to record a show at the low bitrate required to fit 45 hours on one disc? And especially in Sony’s dubious ATRAC3 codec? For that matter, I’m sure it’s impossible to fit 45 hours of music purchased from the “Sony Connect” store on one disc, (unless the software allows re-encoding, and even then it would sound atrocious).