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Sony chief blames DRM for defeat by Apple
Sony would have beaten Apple in the race for digital music customers had the Japanese firm made its technology more open, according to Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer. He says Sony lost out because it relied on restrictive digital rights management (DRM) at a time when consumers were demanding access to music from different sources.
In an interview with Nikkei Electronics Asia, Stringer blames DRM for the failure of Sony’s CONNECT music download service. The system meant that only sites that signed contracts with Sony could offer music to CONNECT customers.
“If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple,” says Stringer.
Stringer is right to observe that consumers dislike closed technologies. He points to the example of the AOL portal, which achieved impressive early growth but subsequently suffered a decline as its customers demanded more freedom to enjoy the web as they chose. In Stringer’s words, “AOL wanted to keep them locked up in a narrow portion of the immense internet cosmos”.
Consumers tend to avoid music that comes with DRM in favour of content that they can enjoy on whatever devices they choose. However, it is unclear whether Sony’s failure to drop DRM explains its defeat at the hands of Apple. For one thing, Apple only decided to get rid of DRM this year, a long time after its victory over Sony in the digital music market was assured.
Sony also lacks an iconic portable player to attract and retain customers. Though its Walkman series is still going strong, the Sony Walkman no longer has the cultural cachet of the original cassette players that sold so well in the 1980s. It has nowhere near the brand value of Apple’s iPod.
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