Sony on Friday said it has plans to get into the tricky business of "Walkman-like" digital audio playback devices. But the company was mum about the MP3 question.
Some kind of player is "a direction we're pursuing, but there are no products yet," said Rick Clancy, Sony spokesman. "There are issues to be worked through."
There certainly are. MP3 is a format that lets users compress and send audio files over the Net at near CD-quality. The technology has caused controversy because it can be used to pirate music files.
The Recording Industry Association of America says it's not against the format, but has not embraced it and is developing its own specification with additional security through the Secure Digital Music Initiative, due out by the end of this year. In addition to making tons of consumer electronics, Sony also runs Sony Music, one of the big five record labels.
Sony's product would "conceivably [have] the content protection issues addressed," said Clancy.
Sony showed a conceptual prototype of a Walkman-like playback device at Comdex last November. Clancy emphasized that any future product will not only play music files downloaded from the Net, but from a CD, minidisc, or DAT tape, or digital content from a satellite.
He declined to say what audio formats the device would support, but said it would use Sony's Memory Stick -- a removable flash memory card the size of a stick of gum that stores data like music files. Memory Stick is already used in some PCs and digital cameras.
Last October, the RIAA sued Diamond Multimedia over its portable Rio MP3 playback device, accusing the company of ruining the online market for digital distribution.
Separately, Sony has pitched a hardware solution to SDMI as a more secure means of delivering music files. Sony's solution would move -- rather than copy -- music files from one place to another using Memory Stick technology, and would limit playback to compliant devices.
Last week, IBM said it was working with three or more consumer electronics companies on incorporating its microdrive product -- capable of storing up to six albums worth of music -- into portable MP3 player devices. IBM is also working with the major recording labels to test its Madison Project, another attempt at providing music files with high security.
Clancy said that although Sony is interested in pursuing this area, "Whether we'll be in that business two months from now is still to be determined."
