Sony Connect
, stylised
Sony CONNECT
, was the name for a series of related software products by
Sony
, most notably the Connect Music Store online music store. Sony CONNECT Inc. was a subsidiary of
Sony Corporation of America
.
Sony Connect was Sony's second attempt at online music following
PressPlay
.
[1]
Connect Music Store
[
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]
The
CONNECT Music Store
was
Sony
's music store built within the
SonicStage
music management application for
Microsoft Windows
-based personal computers. It was one of the world's largest online music download stores with over 2.5 million tracks to preview and purchase, with over 10,000 new songs added every Tuesday.
In 2003, Robert Shahnazarian began producing exclusive recording only available to users of Sony Connect. These sessions were the brain child of Ty Braswell and Neil Schield to provide exclusive content to users of Sony Connect's music platform. These session were recorded at Sony Studios in Santa Monica along with Westlake Recording Studios. These “exclusive” sessions were known as the Live from the Connect living-room series, and were recorded and mixed by Robert Shahnazarian. Over 350 sessions were recorded for this series and included such artists as Taylor Swift, John Legend, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Tears for Fears, and Brand Carlile to name just a few.
The CONNECT Music Store closed in North America and Europe on 31 March 2008, and the website has been unavailable from 1 March 2008. However, in late 2008, Sony launched a new
online music store
called "bandit.fm" on a trial basis in several countries, particularly
Australia
and
New Zealand
. The store was never launched globally, and closed in 2016.
[2]
In 2010, Sony also launched another store named
Music Unlimited
which at first was compatible with PlayStation devices.
[3]
"Sony Connect" was also the name given to the software used to manage book, music and image content on the
Sony Reader
; it has since been renamed
Sony eBook Library
.
The
SonicStage
software transferred music tracks to Sony media devices like Network Walkman, CD Walkman,
Hi-MD
,
PSP
(via the Memory Stick),
Clie
handheld or Vaio computers, but did not transfer to non-Sony hardware.
Connect Video
[
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]
Sony CONNECT Video
was a division within Sony CONNECT developing digital service platforms to enable distribution of next-generation entertainment to Sony devices.
Users could download video content directly to their device wirelessly or by means of using the USB port and their computer.
Connect Player
[
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]
CONNECT Player
was a
media player
application, developed by Sony Connect, a division of
Sony Corporation of America
in 2005. It was released for European and Japanese market in November 2005 to be used with Sony's new HDD digital music players - the
NW-A Series Walkman (A1000 and A3000)
.
In January 2006, Sony Europe recommended users to change to
SonicStage
(Sony's earlier media player) pending potential further updates to the CONNECT Player software due to thousands of reports regarding its many problems.
[4]
[5]
In May 2006, Connect Player was absorbed into a newly released SonicStage version called SonicStage CP (the letters bearing the name).
[6]
Compatibility
[
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]
The CONNECT Music Store was only accessible via
Internet Explorer
on computers running the
Microsoft Windows
operating system.
Files downloaded from the CONNECT Music Store were encrypted using Sony's
Digital Rights Management
, in the
OpenMG
(*.omg & *.oma) file format. Audio content is encrypted using an OpenMG compliant program —
SonicStage
— and stored on a computer's hard disk for playback or transfer to a Sony media device. The file format is
ATRAC
3, Sony's proprietary compressed music format.
References
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Free
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Rental and
purchase
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Others
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Discontinued
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