2. Contents
Basic Information
What is Sony
Qriocity and
what does it
offer?
Who is the
target
audience for
Sony Qriocity?
Who, What, When
Who owns
Sony Qriocity?
When was it
established?
What kinds of
music does
Qriocity offer
to thier
audience?
Pros and Cons of
Sony Qriocity
What
advantages
do the
audience of
Sony Qriocity
have?
What
disadvantages
do their
audience have
to face?
Marketing
Techniques
What kind of
marketing
techiniques
do Sony
Qriocity use
and what kind
of effect does
it have on the
music
industry?
3. Basic Information
Sony Qriocity is a music and video streaming service.
It is subscription based and is to work only on Sony devices like the Playstation
3, the Vaio laptops and Sony Ericcson mobile phones. Sony aim to provide thier
customers downloadable high-def movies and music. The devices should have
an internet connection available to enjoy the full experience of thier services.
Sony are aiming this service to as many people as they can, trying to beat the
most popular music/video streaming service available today: iTunes. They
already expect the 54 million registered Playstation 3 users to sign up to this
service giving Sony a sizable target audience for its new service.
Sony have already abandoned earlier music streaming site, Connect Music. This,
too, offered a wide selection of songs for downloading, but users were
restricted to using Sony hardware and software to listen.
4. Who, When, What?
Sony Qriocity is owned by Fujio Nishida, the president of Sony in Europe.
Sony Qriocity was announced by Sony in April of this year but has not yet been
released. Sony aim to start the service in the UK towards the end of this year.
They have already offered the US the ’video on-demand’ service which means
that the service users can watch high-def movies and music videos whenever
they want.
They want to release as many songs as possible: they estimate in millions. They
haven’t disclosed information on what record labels are going to be featured.
5. Pros and Cons of Sony Qriocity
Sony promise to provide services that already exist from websites like Last.FM
but want their customers to enjoy more than music and videos. They are also
going to offer e-books (books in the digital format that can be easily transfered
and portablised, making them available to read on e-book readers, phones and
media players) and games. The service can be accessed from Sony Blu-Ray
players, Bravia flat screens, Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Sony Vaio laptops and
their gaming systems(Playstation 3 and PSP Go!). Films that will be available will
come from several big-shot studios:20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, NBC
Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner
Bros.
However Sony Qriocity will have problems competing with iTunes. Sony’s
expectations will be high if they want to beat iTunes. The question is: Will Sony
be able to keep up with Apple’s service? They will also have to fight off Amazon,
who are also planning to start their own service providing old films and TV
shows. Sony have not mentioned the cost of the subscription and it will take
time to spread through Sony’s convergence technology. They have also
restricted the service to Sony customers, practically ushering away non-Sony
customers. Users cannot download music but can only stream it.
