Japanese audio companies prep Net-music service
By Yoshiko Hara, TechWeb News
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Eight Japanese audio manufacturers will launch a music distribution service directly to audio devices starting on 20 May.
Apple Computer will kick start the hard disk-based music distribution service with its iPod. Meanwhile, the eight companies are working to establish services that are independent from PCs and secure from unauthorised copying.
Sony Corporation, Kenwood Corporation, Pioneer Corporation and Sharp Corporporation formed a company in January 2003 to prepare a common platform for the distribution service.
The platform is based on Sony's OpenMG X copyright management technology and ATRAC3 audio compression technology, which is used for MD disks.
The four companies and four supporters -- Onkyo Corporation, D&M Holdings Incorporated (Marantz and Denon), Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) and Yamaha Corporation -- expanded the preparatory company to establish Any Music Incorporated in February with a capital investment of ¥600 million (about US$5.6 million).
The original four companies hold a 15.9-percent share in the equity of the new company; the rest hold 9.1 percent.
Any Music will cooperate with LableGate Co Ltd, which was formed by major music label companies in Japan to distribute music over networks. It holds 38,000 music titles.
Along with a registration and monthly fees, users can download single songs or one album. Downloaded music can be moved to a portable audio player under the copy- control scheme based on Open MG X.
Any Music customers also will have access to information on songs being played on FM radio stations and will be able to make purchase CDs and download music. For this service, Any Music has recruited FM broadcasters and one of Japan's largest CD retailers as partners.
Coinciding with the launch, Sony and Pioneer announced audio systems compatible with Any Music. They include 40GB hard disk drives and will sell for about ¥110,000 (about US$1,000).
AI
