Music News Bulletin: 24/10/08

What lies ahead for Sony Music?
"Since Sony purchased BMG's half of the companies' joint venture, people have wondered what Sony will do to make the acquisition pay off. Leadership under one roof is a good start. That should have a positive impact by itself. Integration was brought up in the Sony Corp. press release that announced the acquisition. Said Sir Howard Stringer,

This acquisition will allow us to achieve a deeper and more robust integration between the wide-ranging global assets of the music company and Sony's products, operating companies and affiliates. It enables us to offer a total entertainment experience to consumers." [Coolfer]

Sony seeks to harmonize music, electronics
"Now that Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG have broken off their troubled relationship, known as Sony BMG, the Japanese company hopes to harmonize its consumer electronics and its music, a duo that was badly out of sync.

The music business combination four years ago made Sony BMG the world's No. 2 record label, generating savings and pre-empting other industry consolidation. But the venture's cost-cutting didn't keep pace with falling CD sales, and the two companies' digital strategies didn't jibe. So they called it quits, and Sony bought out its partner for $900 million in a deal that closed Oct. 1.

Selling its 50 percent stake will let Bertelsmann refocus on its growing TV, magazines and book publishing businesses. And full ownership of the music venture gives Sony control of a medium it can use to drive electronics sales, just as it is using wholly owned Sony Pictures to help sell the Bravia line of TVs. The new company is called Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

"It's nice to see Sony at least trying to line up some of their content efforts with their hardware," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of global strategy for Jupiter Media. "Up until now, the left hand never seemed to know what the right hand was doing."" [RecordOfTheDay]

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