Sony Streams From Digital Island

Digital Island, a Cable & Wireless property Tuesday says it has inked a deal to supply Sony Music Entertainment artists and label Web sites with audio and video streaming.

Sony, the label that hosts such artists as Destiny’s Child, Michael Jackson and Tony Bennett, says it will use the services to stream audio clips and music videos on its promotional Web sites in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America.

San Francisco-based Digital Island says it will be using its 2Way Web services to tackle the contract. 2Way Web is separated into three packages – 2Transact for transactions, 2Deliver for content delivery and 2Manage for content management.

The two companies have worked together before. Back in April, Sony hired Digital Island for its Footprint technology. Sony says the content delivery service sped up its animations, images, ad banners and other content, including music downloads, on its Sony Music Online Japan Web site.

With the streaming media market expected to top $2.5 billion in 2004, according to Jupiter Research, the demand for streaming content, news, education and information is greater than ever.

“Digital Island’s 2Deliver technology allows us to deliver high quality audio and video efficiently in multiple formats in response to demand for music from our artists’ many fans worldwide,” says Sony Music vice president of new technology and business development J. David Waldman. “It delivers the music people want, in the format they choose, quickly and easily.”

With the 2Way Web service, Digital Island says Sony can manage traffic spikes during new album releases and online promotions as the Web queries are directed to the optimal server nearby through its Footprint technology.

And size won’t be a problem since Digital Island signed contracts with Compaq Computer and EMC Corp. to be able to expand and contract its online storage space as needed.

The songs will be available in RealAudio, QuickTime and Windows Media Audio formats.