SONY, which jolted the electronics world almost 25 years ago with the release of the Walkman, is poised to be the first major entertainment company to offer legal music downloads in Europe with plans to start a new service around April.

The service, which will be known as Connect in the US but will take a different name in Europe, is expected to be launched in tandem with a new portable music storage format that Sony hopes will give it back some initiative in the market it once dominated.

The Japanese company, which is in the process of merging its music business with that of Germany’s Bertelsmann, said that the music download service would launch with more than 500,000 songs available for about $1 (55p) each.

Britain’s OD2 is the only major music download service operating across Europe, having sold three million songs since its launch in 2002. Roxio’s re-launched Napster and Apple, which pioneered the market in the US with its iTunes service, have both said they hope to launch European services some time this year.

Industry sources suggested that Sony would find it difficult to establish copyright and royalty agreements with the major music publishers in time for its planned launch. Sony’s service will allow consumers to buy music online and download it on to Sony portable devices such as the advanced Walkman players. Sources close to the company admitted it would have to find a different title for its European service because Connect had already been registered as a business name.

Sony is hoping to win back some of the lustre it lost last year after a stunning profits warning. It plans to shed 13 per cent of its global workforce as part of a Y335 billion (£1.8 billion) restructuring.