The company said that it would first launch the Net Music Download service in Japan, followed by the US and Europe early next year. It follows in the footsteps of Apple, which launched iTunes in the US in April, and MSN, which unveiled a pay-per-download music service last month.
Speaking in Paris, Sir Howard Stringer, vice-chairman of Sony and head of entertainment operations, claimed that the industry had lost $7bn (拢4.4bn)over the past two years. It blames services such as KaZaA and Morpheus, as well as the defunct Napster, for the decline in record sales.
Now Sony will choose from artists including Beyonce, Judas Priest and the Pope, who recorded a spoken word CD for the label in 2000, to create a catalogue of downloadable music.
The move comes as Universal Music announced it was slashing the price of CDs sold by its artists, in an attempt to encourage more people to buy music than download it.
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