Sony inks deal with SoundCloud

Sony Music Entertainment has officially confirmed that it has licensed SoundCloud, ahead of the launch of a subscription service in the US and other markets later this year. MBW broke the news of the deal yesterday, and Sony is the last of the three major record labels to agree terms. Sony will take equity in the streaming platform. 

Sony rule out split

A push to split Sony's electronics division from its film and music operations has been rejected by the Japanese giant's Board. Daniel Loeb who runs the Third point hedge fund had tried to force the split having spent $1 billion buying a 7% stake in Sony Corp. 

Sony sues Beyonce filesharer

Sony Music is suing a Swedish file-sharer who is accused of leaking  Beyonce's 2011 album '4' before its release. The man, from Gothenburg, is thought to have links to the music industry,and he also faces a criminal prosecution. Repotrts say that Sony is suing for 1.5 million kronor, or $233,000, claiming that the defendant's actions impacted on its marketing strategy and sales revenue and hindered the major's relationship with Beyonce and damaged her reputation

Sony reduces losses

The latest quarterly financial report from Japan's Sony Corp show net losses down to 10.8 billion yen (£73 million) for the last quarter of 2012 (Q3), compared to losses of 158 billion yen for the same quarter a year earlier. Sales were also up 6.9% to 1.948 trillion yen.  A slump in the fortunes of the group's traditional cash cows of consumer electronics, and especially in the television set space, has hit the firm hard but restructuring and a sales recovery promoted by a weakening yen appears to have allowed the Group to reduce losses. 

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/12q3_sony.pdf

Sony credit rating cut

Sony Corp, owner of Sony BMG and co-owners of the newly expanded Sony ATV, has had its credit ratting downgraded to 'junk' status for the first time. Fitch cut electronic giant Panasonic’s rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory. Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.

Did Sony scupper iStream?

The New York Post has marked an interesting result of the recent SonyATV-EMI merger, saying the new music publishing giant effectively blocked Apple's new iStream project - the proposed iTunes streaming service. A number of commentators had warned that the combined might of Sony and EMI in music publishing and Universal and EMI in sound recording markets could block new entrants from the digital market - but this story is more complex - it seems that Sony simply refused to give Apple more favourable rates than those available from the US collection societies BMI and ASCAP or from SoundExchange, the body which represents sound record rights holders in the online radio space, and which also licenses services like Pandora.

Two more acts sue for digital royalty boost

Boz Scaggs and REO Speedwagon have joined the ever growing list of artistes, many well established, who have filed digital royalty lawsuits against the  major bales for a bigger cut of digital revenue. The defendant in both suits is Sony.  FBT Productions have already won a court case against Universal to get a bigger share of digital royalties from 'Eminen' recordings they worked on, and Cheap Trick, the Allman Brothers and a number of other artistes have settled a case with Sony. Cases from Rob Zombie, Whitesnake, Toto, Weird Al janKovic, Dixie Chicks, Chuck D, George Clinton, Peter Frampton, Sister Sledge, Rick James's estate, Kenny Rogers and James Taylor are pending.

Sony musical chairs

Sony Corp has confirmed a number of personnel changes in its American division as Kazuo Hirai takes on the role of overall CEO for the Sony Group. Sony Pictures Entertainment boss Michael Lynton also becomes CEO for Sony Corporation Of America. Sony General Counsel Nicole Seligman will also become President, heading up business and legal affairs for the division. Sony Music's Doug Morris and Sony/ATV's Marty Bandier will both report to Lynton. Sony Corporation Of America's CFO Rob Wiesenthal will move into the Sony/ATV music publishing company as Chief Strategy Officer, reporting to Bandier, and overseeing all territories outside North America and the UK.

Oppostion to EMI sale gows

Public Knowledge, a campaigning group that lobbies on internet and intellectual property issues, has submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in the USA arguing that an expanded Universal and Sony after acquiring the recorded music and publishing divisions of EMI respectively would be very bad news for the emerging digital music market. PK urges FTC officials to consider how the deals will "impede investment, innovation, and therefore competition" and affect "the development of music distribution and other services that ultimately benefit musicians and their fans everywhere. Public Knowledge claims that even in today's market place a major label can wield sufficient power to demand that potential new digital music services pay the label hefty advances and a high percentage of future revenue, or give the record label an equity stake and it will be impossible to enter the digital music market without Sony & UMG board (with only two majors left, Warners a mini-major). Indie labels trade body Impala and Warners have already raised opposition to the sales.

Private funeral for Whitney, red faces for Sony

A private funeral for Whitney Houston will take place this Saturday in the singer's hometown of Newark at the modest Baptist church where she first sang in public. It will be an invite-only occasion

Elsewhere, sales of the late singer's work have boomed since her death. According to the Official Charts Company, 20 Houston songs should be in the UK Top 200 this weekend, seven in the Top 40, with her cover of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' charting the highest. More embarrassingly, Sony Music in the UK have put down two price hikes in the wake of the death to ‘employee error’: the price for Whitney's 'Ultimate Collection' rose on iTunes UK from £4.99 to £7.99 and 'Whitney: The Greatest Hits', also went up in price temporarily, from £7.99 to £9.99.

Sony figures disappoint again

With news that CEO Sir Howard Stringer is on the way out, Sony has again posted disappointing financial figures with a loss of over $2 billion for its most recent quarter. The strong yen and flooding in Thailand hitting manufacturing bases were cited along with disappointing sales. In the music division, recorded music companies saw revenues decline 11.7% and profits decline, 21.7% despite it distributing Adele's phenomenally successful album '21' in the US and successes with Adele's 'Live At The Royal Albert Hall' DVD, strong sales for Susan Boyle product and successful Glee spin-offs although the company is said to be expecting a better 2012 for music at least.

Millions at risk after Sony hacking

Sony have admitted that millions of customers personal data may have been lost after the electonics giant was hacked. The data, which includes personal data including names, addresses and dates of birth may also possiblly include credit card details belongs to up to 79 million gamers who use users the Sony Playstation network and other customers who use Sony Qriocity based music service.