The landscape of the digital music retail industry is constantly shifting, but this month has seen an earthquake of activity and the rumblings of major announcements. Since the future of your music career may very well depend on it, we though we'd do a quick wrap-up of the most recent industry highlights:
- Disconnected - Are you familiar with Sony Connect, the media conglomerate's online music store? No? Perhaps that's why Sony is shuttering the doors on its digital music destination. After sticking to a proprietary file format that didn't play nicely with non-Sony devices, the company has finally thrown in the towel, beaten to the punch by its more popular rivals.
- Urge to Merge - Meanwhile, a partnership between MTV and RealNetworks has been announced in which both companies' music stores will be integrated into a single venture. The two music services (MTV's Urge and RealNetworks' Rhapsody) have already begun to meld as Urge subscribers are granted access to Rhapsody. The partnership will also include Verizon Wireless, which seeks to bring the service right to your cellphone. If the right marketing muscle is flexed, Apple could see some serious competition ahead.
- More in Store - Finally, Wal-Mart has made a bold move at grabbing some of Apple's market share by stocking their digital music store with MP3 files that are free of DRM (Digital Rights Management). The retail giant will sell unprotected MP3s, capable of being played on virtually any device, at a much deeper discount than the iTunes Store, which recently announced a similar DRM-free plan. Even Amazon.com has said it will get in on the act of selling MP3s as soon as mid-September. All stores will only offer MP3 downloads for a select group of songs, so it's not quite a paradigm shift, but it is big news in an industry that until recently was insistent on copy protection.
