SONY and Vivendi to build Online Music Store
  02/26/2001 2:19:00 AM MST Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

Sony as a major record label is building their own online music sharing center.   Announced just a few days after the court ruling against you know who (I don't even like to mention their name), SONY and Vivendi plan to build their own online music sharing center.

  Details are a bit scarce at this time, but 1 thing is clear, Online Music sharing is here to stay. It's also clear that MP3's are definitely out of the picture. An MP3 isn't even close to the quality of the song on the actual Digital CD, and since SONY is a major record label, they'll have to deliver the best goods. Consumers like yourselves shouldn't settle for anything less than the highest quality music, and MP3 technology is 10 years old, and doesn't even come close to the quality of the actual song on a CD.

  This quality difference is mainly due to the compression ratio of nearly 10 to 1, which shrinks the quality of the music along with the file size. Better compression technology which matches or (yes) even exceeds the quality of a CD recording already exists with the Windows Media format. Considering SONY and Microsoft are going head to head in the Video Game Market, I seriously doubt SONY whos teaming up with Vivendi will use the Windows Media Secure Format.

  Another point is absolutely clear. SONY plans on sharing digital recordings totaling 50% of what's already on CD, from various record labels. I don't think SONY has what it takes to make this happen considering Warner Music is now AOL Time Warner, and AOL Time Warner as you all know, makes SONY look like a dwarf in the online presence and Music arena.

  It should be interesting, and I'll follow any other updates that come out.