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If at first you don’t succeed … try again or move on?  For Sony, the answers are all relative. 

Today, in unrelated announcements, the electronics giant announced both that they would disconnect (e.g. shut down) their struggling Connect Music music store and also, that they will be introducing two new video-capable Walkman MP3 players.

It’s a tale of missed opportunities, bad choices, and the struggle to correct them.   As far back as 1997, Sony was poised to try and take the dominance they developed with the original Walkman into the digital MP3 world.   Back then, Sony had a joint venture with IBM for electronic music distribution.  The plan was to create both portable music players and a digital music store. 

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In an age of corporate sponsorships, Tuesday is iTunes day.  Apple has long claimed the day as its forum to introduce new musical additions to its iTunes catalog.  Two weeks ago the day belonged to John Lennon.  This week, it’s his former band mates, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. That overload of ex-Beatles is fueling a new round of thoughts on what is the most speculated of all iTunes mysteries: when will the Beatles and Apple Music take a bit out of iTunes and Apple Inc.

Theories are swirling. The latest buzz is saying maybe, September 5th will be that day.   Apple has previously announced major product changes are on schedule for this quarter.  The Beatles band members are getting increasingly frequent reference on Apple promotional materials (e.g. iTunes Tuesday).  And now, Apple has scheduled a “Special Event” for the 5th and all reports are its iPod related.

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There’s been a lot of activity on the financing front lately.  With big deals like Metacafe’s $30m round, and smaller deals with celebrity investors like,   Exabre (The Filter) some other smaller round deals haven’t gotten a lot of press.  Two that were almost overlooked are game company Conduit Labs and discovery-agent software company uPlayMe

Conduit Labs:
Conduit Labs has raised $5.5m in a first round for an internet gaming site.  Click to Read More

In what is likely the end of MTV’s Urge music service, Viacom’s MTV Networks and Real Networks have shaken hands on a deal to launch a music store joint venture to compete against iTunes.

The Urge music service will merge with Real Networks Rhapsody service to form Rhapsody America.  Music from the combined entity will be available via the net as well as through an integrated service with Verizon’s VCast cell phone service.

Financial details and other terms weren’t immediately disclosed but review of the 8-K filing with the SEC shed a detailed light on the joint venture. 

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Exabre, parent company of the U.K. based music discovery and recommendation service The Filter has closed a $5m investment round from Eden Ventures and music icon, Peter Gabriel via his company The Real World Group.

The Filter provides a content-recommendation software product that (once installed) indexes a user’s music library and recommends related titles that may be of interest.   In concept, though not necessarily method of recommendation, it’s similar to Pandora and Last.fm (which was acquired by CBS). 

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John Lennon went this week.  Paul McCartney a few months ago.  Led Zeppelin is on track for Thanksgiving.  The Beatles too are on the way.  Will Garth Brooks be the next of last major hold outs to come to iTunes?  Better yet, is an announcement about the country star’s catalog imminent?   …  The answers are probably and possibly (or at least, remotely possible).

There is no definitive or confirmed news yet, largely it’s conjecture, more iTunes speculation, but a few facts suggest the stars are beginning to align for Apple.  Notably, taken as a sum of the parts, there is evidence to suggest sooner than later, very possibly by November, Garth too will move from the minus to the plus column in Apple’s musical clubhouse.

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In May, Sonos, the maker of a wireless multi-room digital music system signed a deal to offer music from internet radio station Pandora.   Today, the Santa Barbara based company added Sirius Satellite Radio (via the Internet) to their mix.

As part of the new partnership, owners of Sonos Digital Music Systems will have access to streams from eighty music and talk channels from Sirius Internet Radio.   The service will cost $3/month but won’t require any special hardware.

The Sonos system  is kind of like a cross between an iPod, a remote control and a home stereo.  It wirelessly streams a music collection from up to 16 computers or storage devices (including MP3 players) to Sonos receivers.  Receivers are placed around an owner’s house Click to Read More