Sony Introduces A New Walkman Experience

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Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- "More people listen to digital music on Sony Walkman players than on any other brand and we're redefining that experience to make it even better," said Todd Schrader, vice president for Sony Electronics personal audio products.

The new "Walkman experience", as Schrader called it, is a complete system for downloading, managing and playing back music on a wide selection of Sony portable devices, creating a seamless way for consumers to connect to their music and take it anywhere.

The experience begins with Sony's new line of network portable audio products including, Hi-MD Walkman digital music players, the latest Net MD Walkman recorders, ATRAC CD Walkman players, and the new Network Walkman players. All the devices come bundled with SonicStage Jukebox management software and are compatible with Sony's new Connect online music service.

In turn, the Connect service will offer consumers a practical, easy-to-use, and secure way to purchase music online and download it on to their Walkman players.

"Digital music is hot and spreading at lightning speed," Schrader said. "To date, there are already 2 1/2 million Walkman branded devices in use throughout the U.S. that are compatible with the Connect service. Over the next year, that number will increase to more than 7 million. There is no doubt as to Sony's leadership in portable audio -- we're already there with a legacy of well-designed, dependable products and now, a great a new service."

The Devices
Leading the array of "connected" Walkman products, the new Hi-MD Walkman digital music players allow users to record up to 45 hours of music compressed at 48 kilobits per second at up to 100 times transfer speed on one disc, while still enjoying the extensive battery life, compact design and robustness for which MD players are recognized. Removable, re-recordable Hi-MD media provide music lovers with unlimited storage capacity to build an infinite library of their favorite songs. The new Hi-MD recorders will be available in April and are expected to range in price from about $200 to $400.

Several new models of the popular Net MD Walkman recorders will also be part of the Walkman experience in 2004. Net MD Walkman models offer high- speed transfer from a PC via a direct USB connection and can record up to five hours of music on one $2, 80-minute disc. Ranging in price from less than $100 to about $150, Net MD recorders provide up to 56 hours of play back life on one "AA" battery, making them an intelligent and fun solution for the digital downloader. The new Net MD Walkman players will also be available in April.

Music fans who like to burn their own CDs will benefit from Sony's ATRAC CD Walkman players, which enable up to 490 songs to be compressed on just one CD-R/RW disc. All the new models include G-protection technology for users who want virtually skip-free, uninterrupted music during active use. The new models also support CD text and ID3 tagging for organizing tracks. Sony's Jog Dial control and extended battery life are also incorporated. With an entry level price point of about $60, the new CD players give consumers an affordable and familiar technology for taking music off the PC and traveling with it on the go. The new ATRAC CD Walkman models will be available in March and will range in price from about $60 to $200.

And for the ultra-fashionable music lover, the streamlined Network Walkman players are ideal. These tiny gems are available with 256 or 512 MB of built-in memory and have a MagicGate Memory Stick Duo slot, which provides additional expansion when used with the minute flash media card. The NW-MS70D model with 256 MB of built in memory is currently available for about $300. A new 512 MB capacity NW-MS90D model will be available in April for about $400.

The Service
The new Connect service will feature more than 500,000 tracks from the major music companies and many independent labels. Users can easily browse through content by artist, title or genre. The Connect service will also feature special content not available on any other music site. Singles will be available for 99 cents and entire albums can be downloaded for $9.95. Songs on the Connect service will be available in ATRAC3 audio compression to work directly with Walkman digital music players.

Connect service will come to market in phases. After an initial pilot period, the service will officially launch this spring. Afterwards, upgraded software with more flexibility, features and tighter integration with Sony products will be released in the summer.

- Actual battery life for Net MD recorders may vary based on usage patterns.
- Songs recorded on ATRAC CD Walkman players are calculated based on four minutes per song using 700 MB CD-R/RW media compressing in ATRAC3 plus at 48kbps.
- User available memory for 256MB Network Walkman is 268,435,456 bytes and for the 512MB 536,870,912 bytes, a portion of which is used for data management functions.

Source: Sony Electronics Inc.