@ D6: Stringer on Digital Music: The Vanishing Album Is An Issue

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Rafat Ali

paidContent.org
Wednesday, May 28, 2008; 6:07 PM

Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony ( NYSE: SNE), is on stage talking about, among other things, Sony's position in music: "We have sold about 170 million music enabled phones, which is more than iPods...we have sold that in about two years. We started the trend with the Sony Walkman phone, mostly in Europe. Clearly there is something happening in digital music on phones...Nokia ( NYSE: NOK) has led the charge in all you can eat experiments and we will get there. We are back in the game, but we recognize our failing." Notice he didn't even mention any online music service/Sony Connect or a standalone MP3 player...Sony has pretty much given up there.

Later, he talks about iTunes and iPod: "In a sense, iTunes is a gatekeeper...the price is fixed. I have my own hostilities to the iTunes experience. I will get blogged to death for saying this: the problem with iPod model is it is a singles model, and the album stands for a body of work. Being competitive to iPod is healthy, but in the end it is about the music. Preserving the quality of music, and the A&R business is imperative. The vanishing album is an issue I worry about, but maybe I am old."

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