Sony's peripherals division has followed 'big five' recording company EMI's lead and signed a deal that effectively legitimises copying music onto blank CDs.

Sony Electronics today said it has licensed online music company MusicMatch's Jukebox software and will bundle it with internal and external Sony CD-R and CD-RW burners. Initially, seven models will ship with Jukebox, but all of them will include the code by the end of the year.

Jukebox competes with software from RealNetworks and Apple's iTunes applicatin for Mac users. The CD burning compnent of RealNetworks is provided by Roxio, the Adaptec spin-off that has caused a furore among Windows 2000 with the poor state of its Easy CD Creator software's support for that OS.

Roxio this week joined with EMI to develop a secure way to download tracks for burning straight to CD.

The terms of the Sony/MusicMatch deal were not disclosed, but we note that a spokesman told Reuters the company would see its 2001 revenues come in at more than double 2000's figure of $10 million. Sony must be contributing significantly to that extra $10 million. ®

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