Author John Scalzi outlines, hilariously, why Sony BMG’s plan for selling non-DRMed songs online is ridiculous and doomed to spectacular failure.

“Kid #1: Also, what’s with this first slate of artists? Celine Dion? Backstreet Boys? Kenny Chesney? Barry Manilow? Are you high?

Sony BMG dude: They appeal to the sort of mainstream consumer who will see the convenience of our revolutionary music cards!

Kid #2: Like my mom? Dude, she’s not going to buy a card. She’s going to buy a CD. Because she’s at the CD store. Where she can buy CDs.

Sony BMG dude: They also make lovely gifts!”

Kid #1: If she gets one as a gift, all she’s going to do is ask me how the heck she’s supposed to use it. And then she’s going ask me to get the download for her. Like I’m not busy. And you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to return the card for cash, and then I’m going to download the album off of Pirate Bay, because you’ve confused and upset my mom. And annoyed me.”

Link.

Like TechCrunch, he’s also suggesting that they want it to fail, so they can say they tried to sell non-DRMed songs but there just wasn’t demand. But, again, I’m worried that this gives Sony BMG too much credit.

I’d be shocked if they didn’t actually think that this was a good idea. I think they figure this is a brilliant promotion. They see the demand for non-DRM. They also see sinking CD sales. What do they do? They entice those interested in non-DRMed songs into going to the store where — Ta da! — CDs are available. They print these plastic cards for next to nothing as an enticement to increase CD sales.

Of course, they’re still deluded enough to believe that consumers are willing to jump through their hoops, still concerned about their backward and antiquated business model. But, as always, they’ll be proved profoundly wrong.

Try again, Sony.

What is wrong with these people? It’s like they insist on making everything as terrible as possible.

Because a rootkit wasn’t bad enough. Because admitting DRM is a bad idea by telling people how simple it is to get around wasn’t bad enough.

Well, now that they’ve finally decided to drop DRM, here’s how they plan to implement it:

“DRM free music from Sony BMG will be available from January 15 to those who purchase a plastic card called the “Platinum Music Pass” for the album they want from a retail store for $12.99. Buyers will then have to visit MusicPass.com and enter a code to download the DRM free album they selected in the store.”

You have to go to the store, by a piece of plastic, go back home, and then download the songs DRM-free.

Wow. I hope lots of people get fired for this.

TechCrunch suggests that maybe they’re setting this up to fail, so that they can claim there was no demand for DRM-free and go back to selling DRMemd music.

Me? I think they’re just idiots.

Link.

Photo credit: swanksalot on Flickr, used under license. 

According to BusinessWeek, the last DRM holdout of the major music publishers might be getting ready to dump it, too. Not entirely surprising, as they’ve created more than their fair share of bad press with it, and they’re already telling their customers how to get around it.

“In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned.”

Link.

via The Register

Sony has a solution for iPod users who’ve cashed in their Sony Rewards points for DRMed WMA-format music: Just circumvent their DRM.

And they even tell you how. Of course it’s the old ‘burn it to a CD, then rip CD’ trick, but still, helpful!

Sony is, of course, the last major music publisher to still insist on DRM, but at least they understand that it’s useless, easily circumvented, and annoying.

“Attention iPod users:

Our download service provides files in the WMA music format or the WMV video format, which is not supported by Apple Macintosh computers. To use your music with an iPod, simply follow the steps below:

1. Save each downloaded song to your PC
2. Burn a music CD (in CDA file format)
3. Import the music from the CD into iTunes
4. Update your iPod”

Ars Technica story.

via Michael Geist

If you google a few terms like Sony Viral Video Backlash you’ll find out what happens when marketers try to use the participants of a social network, instead of just trying to harness the network.

I once organized a charity Walk-a-Thon on Facebook, and I got to see what happens when you use a network, instead of its participants.

What’s the difference? Transparency. Participation implies consent, and when marketers try to trick people into doing their advertising for them, bad things ensue.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sony, the company that everyone loves to hate, has screwed up a holiday viral marketing campaign for the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

The campaign, “all i want for xmas is a psp”, is a horribly set up imitation of an actual user who would want a PSP. The number of mistakes are numerous, the most obvious reason for them being that the marketing firm, Zipatoni, is obviously out of touch with their target market.

Sony has had a horrendous 2006. Their DRM rootkit crippled millions of computers and alerted the general public to the concept of DRM (a major no-no). The PS3 received a mild reaction from early adopters and strong competition from the Wii and XBOX 360. On the advertising front, their ads are incohesive and often unrelated to the product - a terrible problem if you’re trying to convert consumers to your platform.

As one commenter at Kotaku’s coverage of this debacle pointed out, this is a “complete failure of PR and marketing”. I don’t want to stretch too far from the general YouMakeMedia topic range here - but I’d go further to say that this is a failure at every level of Sony. Sony, more than any company I’m acquainted with, is crippled by a painfully slow moving corporate bureaucracy. It’s lack of transparency (likely due to the cut throat environment that rises out of age-old honor comittments) forces deals to be cumbersome and riddled with complications. Unfortunately for Sony, this marketing deal with Zipatoni leaked into the public conscious rather quickly.

And now, if you wish, click past the jump for a list of the obvious mistakes made in Sony’s marketing scheme:

Read the rest of this entry »

In a press release today, Sony and Google announced a partnership that will put Sony’s videos on Google. Notably, Google Video is referenced by name only once in the press release - is this intentional (hinting toward GooTube) or do they feel that use of Google Video is implied? /end rumour

Also interesting is this bit:

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT and Google will also work together to create a groundbreaking new service that will allow music fans to access user-created music video content featuring certain material from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT’s library of recorded music, while at the same time respecting the rights of artists and copyright holders.

They’ll be monetizing via AdSense (it’s referenced earlier in the press release). It’s great to see that user-generated content is being taken more seriously however I’m curious as to where this leaves YouTube now that Google has gotten to Sony first. Obviously if Google buys YouTube out, they’re in the clear, but if not that’ll leave the community at YouTube hanging.

Edit: TechCrunch notes that a similar deal with YouTube was announced today, and that the WSJ and NYTimes are reporting that an acquisition could be announced as early as today.

YouTube also announced deals with CBS and Vivendi Universal. As I noted in a previous post, CBS used to be buddies with Google Video (they sold content, notably Survivor, on the service) so this is shaping up to be a very interesting weekend for internet video.

Most of the time when making a movie, people worry about creating a soundtrack that matches well with the film. Sometimes though, when doing a video montage or making a music video, you’ll need to do the reverse and match video to audio.

This is easier than it sounds - and if you’re a user of Sony Vegas it’s even easier (Vegas started its life as an audio editor, and has always had a fantastic set of audio features). Sony has posted a tutorial that is directed at Vegas users, however it’s chock full of knowledge that can be used by anyone who needs to match video to audio.

Interested in a sample (and a shameless plug, hehe)? Check out this project I did several years ago. Like Russell at DV Guru mentions, the impact is much more dramatic when you have the video and the music working together as they do.

Via DV Guru