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Sony was never even a real player in the on-line music sales business. Most of their "sales" came from the Sony/Columbia brand music that others (like Apple) sold. Their music players have never been among the top sellers since the days of the Walkman and that was over 20 years ago.
Apple, the leader in emusic with their iTunes store, has called for the elimination of DRM and EMI among others have heard and responded to the call. Apple was right in not opening their DRM to other companies so that they could sell DRM emusic to the iPod base. If that many companies know the DRM system it will leak out only to be replaced by an even more invasive scheme.
I agree that with the closing of the emusic store the ebooks are now free to find their own course. In the US, Sony is the leader in dedicated e-ink readers. If DRM stays in ebooks, we need Sony to stick around in selling books. If DRM goes away so does our major dependence on Sony for new books.
When Sony finally entered the on-line emusic arena and the mp3 like portable music market (after years of tape cassettes and minidiscs) they were a johnny-come-lately where others had already staked out their positions and the whole scene was becoming an Apple vs. the commodity market. If you are not Apple, you sell on price and features alone. In that type of place there is no additional price to be paid for a brand name that is not iPod. With ebook readers it is different. Sony is the US leader in the e-ink market. It is in and established before the market takes off. It can win. We can all win.
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