Sony launched an software program in 2005 that was supposed to compete with iTunes : The successor to SonicStage, Sony's audio player : Connect. This project would never succeed, although Sony thought otherwise.

When Sony presented the package to it's employees, there wasn't much more than a sales pitch, and underlying technology wasn't revealed upon questions from the employees. It probably didn't even exist yet. When the program was finally released, it was so buggy that Sony told users to go back to SonicStage. Sony has just announced cancellation of Connect in Q2, 2008.

Sony claims the reason it scrapped Connect is that the company has "widened its digital music environment" to support Windows Media.

Obviously, this is just a result of the closure of the Connect online music store. You can say it any way you like, but the world will be a better place without ATRAC.