Sony Axes Connect Music Store

Sony has announced it's shuttering its Connect Music store in Europe and the U.S., although it will keep selling eBooks under the Connect name.

Connect, we hardly knew thee. After trying unsuccessfully to push its own ATRAC music format through the Connect music store for years, Sony announced Thursday that it will finally kill off the service in March.

The move came amid the launch of its newest Sony Walkman players, which will now support the Windows Media Audio DRM format. While ATRAC files were only playable on Sony MP3 Players and computers with the right software installed, WMA is more widely available and supported.

Connect’s fate has been anticipated since June when Sony Connect laid off 20 people and relocated other’s to Sony’s PlayStation division.

For customers who have already built up music libraries using ATRAC, Sony isn’t offering much consolation. They’re advised to back up the ATRAC files to audio CDs, since Sony makes no promise of ATRAC support in future players. Although a spokesperson told Forbes in an e-mail that Sony would offer software to convert ATRAC files to MP3s, it will only convert non-secure MP3s ripped from CDs, not the protected tracks sold through Connect.