360 Reality Audio debuted at CES 2019 as Sony’s spatial audio format aimed at streaming services. Sony pursued multiple adoption paths by integrating the technology into its personal audio products, courting music streaming platforms, encouraging artists and labels to record in the format, and licensing it to other manufacturers. Immersive audio later became a common expectation across digital media, aligning with Sony’s broader direction. The format struggled because Sony did not become a central platform in the way Apple did, and it lacked a streaming service or significant hardware market share. Without those advantages, the ecosystem failed to sustain momentum.
"Sony had all of the right ideas to innovate the market: leverage its personal audio business to integrate the technology into its headphones, earbuds, and speakers; court music streaming platforms to adopt the audio format; utilize its music recording arm to entice musicians to record albums in the audio format; license its audio format to audio manufacturers willing to pay."
"Sony was spot on about immersive audio being at the core of digital music streaming habits at the turn of the decade; just seven years later, consumers seek immersive audio experiences in nearly all of the digital media they consume."
"What the company failed to foresee was that it wouldn't be a key player in this future. Sony's misstep wasn't that its technology and consumer forecasting were wrong; the company simply wasn't Apple."
"Without a streaming service or significant market share in hardware, Sony's format floundered."
Read at ZDNET
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