Tridactyl Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 I've been patiently awaiting the launch of Sony Connect in Canada for over a year now. 3 NetMD players later, I'm still buying my music through iTunes, burning to CD and ripping back into SonicStage. I tried buying through Puretracks but the files are in WMA format so these also need to be converted to audio CD and ripped back just like the iTunes content.Now, to my amazement I get the following screen when I launch the SonicStage 3.3...Sony Connect detects I'm coming in from an "unauthorized" country so it shows me a list of countries for me to choose from, except Canada isn't on the list. You'd think I could simply pick USA but if I do so I can see the underlying USA based Connect site but can't purchase from it. If I poke around long enough I eventually get redirected to a blank page that says the Connect service isn't available in my country.I have tried contacting Sony support but that didn't go anywhere either...So, as far as Sony is concerned, Canada doesn't really exist so we're actually supposed to be, like, Americans (except if we want to actually BUY SOMETHING!!!!!)Anyone on this board from Canada who has found a workaround for this (other than moving to California???)This is frustrating to no end... It's bad ennough Sony offers a very limited subset of their portable music hardware in Canada but to make matters worse, you can't use the Sony site to purchase music from them.Helloooooooo Sony.... Anybody home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Why even bother? Have you checked out a site called http://www.allofmp3.com ? That is the only place you need to buy music online.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercury_in_flames Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 max bit rate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Of Connect or allofmp3? All of mp3 lets you buy in a plethora of codecs and numerous bitrates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 ^^^including non-lossy compressions like flac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tridactyl Posted November 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Interesting site. I'll check them out.My original point had more to do with the fact one would think Canada is a reasonable sized market for Sony. You could assume Sony would support their products locally, specially since the software insists on brigning you automatically to their online store. For example, Apple launched their canadian site after the US but it DID launch one and it supports iPod sales in Canada.In my opinion, Sony's lack of success against Apple and the other MP3 products stems from the fact they have ignored certain markets altogether. Technically, the products are brilliant but they are expensive and Sony has very poor marketing and offers little support.I remember a huge marketing screwup a year or so ago. Sony had a promotion with McDonalds in the US and Canada. You bought McDonalds food and received an online coupon good for music downloads at Sony Connect. Worked great in the US but in Canada you were automatically redirected to the Canadian Puretracks web site. Now, get this... Puretracks sells its music in WMA format only. Duh!!! This was a Sony promotion and the files weren't even compatible with their own product!It's a self-fulfilling prophecy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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