Sony owns companies across different stages of the music industry including music rights, artists, distribution, and devices. They own the rights to popular artists like Foo Fighters, Britney Spears, and Leona Lewis. Sony also sells music through CDs and downloads and audio devices like MP3 players. Additionally, Sony gains exposure for their music by including it in their films and video games.

2. How are sony vertically integrated? Sony own lots of different companies in the different stages of music production, distribution and consumption. They own the rights to the artist’s music, who are signed with them; these include large names like Foo Fighters, Britney Spears, The Hoosiers, Pitball, Leona Lewis and many more. They also sell the music to the listeners through CD sales and legal music downloading. Sony also sells mp3 players and other electrical devices that allow people to listen to music on. They also own many games and film so can easily play their music on them, widening the audience that hears the music.

3. Do they profit from media convergence? In 2003 Sony released a PSX, this was a PS2, but had the ability to write DVDs and a hard drive, allowing video recording and DVD burning functionality. It was to be a media convergence device to make use of the PlayStation brand to gain a place on a new market, however due to its high price it failed to gain any major market share. It was never released outside of Japan. On Monday trade paper Variety reported that Sony is to release a movie based on more than 80 hours of footage filmed during Michael Jackson’s final days as he was rehearsing for his comeback concerts in London. Other companies have been interested in buying the rights for the footage (it is expected to go for $50 million), however as Sony own the publishing rights to Michael Jackson’s songs, they therefore have the inside track. This shows that Sony and other companies are encouraged to converge the different media sectors. Sony own many video games and films so therefore can easily and cheaply expand the number of people who hear their artists music by playing them on films and video games.