Sony BMG: Why download when you can shop and download?

Posted by Daniel Stout on Tue 8 Jan 2008 at 7:16 PM

Sony BMG has announced that they’re jumping into the DRM-free music scene. They’re going to start selling MP3 downloads of their music. Well, sort of.

Okay, here are the problems, and there are several. First, it’s not a download store like iTunes. In order to buy MP3s from Sony BMG, you first have to go to a retail store like Best Buy and purchase a $12.99 card for a specific album that has a special code on the back. You then go home – or more likely, give it as a gift to your cousin – and then you have to navigate to the special website and input the code. From there you’ll be able to download the album in all of its MP3 glory. What’s wrong with that? For one thing, it’s a major hassle of a way to buy an album. It would seem logical that if you’re at Best Buy or Fye or wherever that it would be easier and perhaps cheaper to just buy the CD, listen to it on the way home, and then rip it later.

And here’s the show stopper: they are only selling 37 albums this way. Sony BMG’s big foray into unDRMed music is a measly 37 albums that include hot titles from Céline Dion, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, and…well, you get the idea.

John Scalzi has a funny take on why it won’t work. [via Daring Fireball]

Tags: celine dion · drm · mp3 · platinum music pass · sony bmg

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