Top of the flops
Sky Songs is shutting up shop barely a year after its launch as the iTunes rival failed to see enough demand.
Sky's answer to iTunes attracted less than 10,000 members over its lifetime and will close for good on 7 February.
A Sky spokesman said: "We've taken the difficult decision to close Sky Songs. Although we are extremely proud of the service we built and the experience it offers, we just didn't see the consumer demand we'd hoped for. As Sky Songs demonstrates, we're a business that takes risks and innovates, but at the same time, we're pragmatic and act decisively when a new venture isn't working out."
The service offered users unlimited music streaming Spotify-style or 5MP3 downloads for a monthly fee of £4.99.
Sky sent this letter to its Sky Songs customers:
We are contacting you to let you know that unfortunately Sky Songs is to close.
Although we've created what we believe to be a really innovative and good value digital music service, regrettably we've not been able to reach a large enough customer base in order for the service to continue.
Please be reassured that any tracks you have previously downloaded using the service remain yours to keep and are not affected by the service's closure. These will remain in your music library and on any devices, such as your iPod or MP3 player, to which you have transferred music files.
And you need not worry about cancelling your payment to us. This will be done automatically today. And although we won't be asking for any further payments from you, you'll still be able to access to the service until its closure on 7th February 2011.
Until that point, you will still able to stream music, although the library of tracks may be subject to change as we move towards closure. You can also download tracks in line with any outstanding entitlements (i.e. as part of your most recent subscription payment).
We appreciate the custom and support you've given the service and thank you for being a customer.
The Daily Telegraph reported that sources said the business model did not stack up financially and was too costly to keep running for such a small number of customers.
Industry sources reportedly said Sky Songs' failure and closure proves how difficult it is for new offerings to compete in the music download market, where established players like iTunes and Spotify rule, while plenty of consumers willingly use illegal sites.
Spotify reportedly has over 320,000 paying members, while iTunes has previously announced it has sold over 10bn songs.
