Sony hints at removing its music from iTunes

Bob Dylan in Apple’s Think different campaign

In an interview with TheAge Sony executive Michael Ephraim hinted that Sony may pull its iTunes music content from Apple’s store over a fallout with the company. At the end of January Apple rejected the Sony ebook reader application from the iOS App Store leading to this fallout between companies.

Sony is planning to launch a new music service called ‘Music Unlimited’ that will stream a library of over 6 million tracks to many devices including Sony TVs, Playstations, and Blu-Ray players. Ephraim said Sony’s new approach to the online music service is more open than Apple’s because it can be streamed directly to multiple devices and won’t have to be synced via a cable through a computer-application (iTunes).

Sony removing their music content from iTunes would be a big deal as Sony’s library includes popular artists like Bob Dylan (Steve’s favorite), Beyonce, and Guy Sebastian. The big hints also come through these quotes from the Sony executive:

If we do [get mass take up] then does Sony Music need to provide content to iTunes?” Mr Ephraim asked. ”Currently we do. We have to provide it to iTunes as that’s the format right now.

”Publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and they are looking for other delivery systems, and we are waiting to see what the next three to five years will hold.

Apple is expected to open up their own online music streaming service‘ soon with help from their new, powerful data center in North Carolina. Apple purchased music streaming company Lala back in late 2009, and many have speculated that Apple would use the new resources from the purchase to build their own streaming service.