mora (モーラ,mōra) is anonline music and video store for the Japanese market operated by Sony Music Solutions, a part ofSony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ).[1] It is integrated into the Japanese version of Sony'sMusic Center for PC software, and was also integrated into its predecessors such asSonicStage. It is now the official store for theirWalkman devices.
When Sony released its NW-MS7Memory Stick compatible digitalWalkman player, Sony Music Entertainment Japan started offering digital music through a store calledbitmusic in December 1999. Bitmusic was merged into mora in July 2007.[2]
In 2000, Label Gate Co., Ltd. was formed, a joint venture of 17 Japanese record companies includingSony Music Entertainment Japan,Avex Group, andUniversal Music Japan, which would then operate the bitmusic store.[3]
The mora store was launched on April 1, 2004. At this time Label Gate was funded by 18 companies while 29 record labels were participant.[4] Originally, music purchased from mora was exclusively in Sony's proprietaryATRAC3 format withOpenMGDRM. A partner store calledmora win (モーラ ウィン,mōra win) was also in operation, usingWindows Media Audio (WMA) codec andWindows Media DRM encryption, and integrated into the Japanese version of Microsoft'sWindows Media Player 11 as the "recommended store" in Japan.[5]
On October 1, 2012, mora underwent a rehaul into a DRM free store, selling songs and music videos inAdvanced Audio Coding (AAC) formats.[6] The mora win service was also eliminated in the restructuring, with the DRM free store being integrated into theMedia Go service in Windows 8. One year later on October 17, 2013, mora began offering songs and albums as 24bit/96kHzFLAC files.[7]
Label Gate merged into Sony Music Solutions in 2021.[8]
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