Sony to Blast Off New Service

Budding artists will soon have a new forum that will allow them to display and fine tune their works for a worldwide audience. Targeting the 18-24 year old demographic, media conglomerate Sony Corporation intends to succeed were others have failed – by making passive users of its online entertainment services active users.

Available this fall, Sony Screenblast will offer users a virtual studio for their own recorded music, and provides powerful tools for editing amateur films -- all on the web. To further entice users, it intends to pull some star power from company ranks to provide users with sample tracks for mixing, and scenes for editing.

Screenblast was first revealed to attendees at Streaming Media West, an annual industry convention.

Sources say the site will offer editing tools and content from Sony's music and movie departments. For example, a user could add in music clips from Sony artists and remix the song while they are at it.

Seeking to not join the list of companies that have failed to build an online medium for entertainment, Sony is planning to offer basic tools for free but is considering a $169 USD fee for premium services. Reuters reports that upstarts such as AtomFilms and Digital Entertainment Network have failed to create a solid revenue stream, and AtomFilms was acquired by Macromedia's Shockwave.com.

While the business success of this venture remains to be seen, consumers remained skeptical.

Tony Coppoletta, an avid digital media purveyor, commented, "I'd be interested to try it out and see what it can do, but it's doubtful I would pay $169 for online tools that are likely to be comparable to software that might come with any given TV or video capture card."

Sony has had some previous success with subscription-based services on the Internet. The company's online game, Everquest, generates $4 million USD a month from approximately 400,000 subscribers.