NEWS Microsoft said on Friday that the second half of the year will see the launch of its online music store, a long-expected entry into an increasingly crowded business dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes.
The software giant this week began offering sneak peaks of the service to independent record labels at the South by Southwest trade show in Austin, Texas. Though Microsoft remains mum about specific details, this week's show signals the company's heightened ambitions to enter the world of online music sales with a bang.
Microsoft will promote its music store primarily through its MSN.com web portal, according to company spokeswoman Lisa Gurry. Visitors will be able to sign up via MSN and browse a catalogue of songs and albums to purchase and download onto their computers. Gurry declined to comment on pricing or on the number of songs Microsoft plans to initially release on the service.
"We are absolutely going to be striving for a large catalogue of music, but we have no specific numbers to confirm," Gurry said in an interview.
The store will also let buyers transfer their music onto portable playback devices. About 60 per cent of portables currently support Microsoft's Windows Media audio format, Gurry said. She added that Microsoft has not decided whether to extend its song portability to non-Windows Media devices.
Currently Apple's popular iPod player is compatible with Microsoft's Windows operating system, as is its iTunes music store. Gurry also declined to say whether Microsoft's music store would be bundled into Windows or featured on its Windows Media playback software.
Online song sales have started to catch on, and many companies are trying to elbow their way into the market. Apple recently said it has sold 50 million songs through iTunes, while smaller players, such as Roxio's Napster, have sold as many as 5 million. Still, the business is difficult because margins are low. Still other companies, such as Yahoo!, have publicly expressed doubt about the business but have nonetheless noted that the trend is becoming too powerful to ignore.
Jim Hu writes for CNET News.com
Comments
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1. anonymous
Fair enough. I think Microsoft are fairly good at providing content, such as Encarta, music.msn.com, etc etc... Microsoft only fails where it tries to ruthlessly dominate the OS market by forcing everyone to use their bloated operating systems.
I think Microsoft will, in fact, do a fairly good job at this new music business.
2. anonymous
For some reason, "Microsoft" isn't the first or last name that pops into my head for artistic products.
Though I'm sure MS will not fail in the music store market, I'm pretty confident that they will not dominate like they're used to doing in so many other ways. Apple and iTunes have done what is so difficult to do: make a brand name synonomous with genre of product offering.
This all assumes of course that MS will not strongarm it's way into the market and use it's Monopoly power. One can't leave that out of the equation.
3. BaddSectorr
does this mean I have to pay for the same song a year later?
http://www.geocities.com/baddsectorr
4. Charles Wood
Lets hope that Microsoft have managed to resolve the licensing arrangements fully for world wide use. Musicmatch, a company I had much respect for until recently, have such a service now BUT ONLY for USA residents, which says several things to me. 1) copyright needs to catch up with modern world situations. 2) USA companies of all, should understand the net is worldwide. 3) Even in its music transactions the myopic view of the USA shows it's ignorance of real world trading issues. Pardon me for asking but is the USA not one of those countries that promotes the Wolrd Trade concept?
let's hope Microsoft does not show the same foolish traits.
5. anonymous
Charles, the US do indeed promote the World Trade Concept. It's the definition of the term 'World' that they have problems with....
6. Macfan
Lame' Microsofty is only good at 1 thing stealing from Mac.
7. anonymous
Always stealing ideas from Apple.
they 'll never be orginal
F#ck Them!!
8. Bob Gould
I think making a product easy to use is very important. Itunes is easy to use for not only buying songs but for importing and burning to disc. I know people who have had media player for years and can't get it to work right but once they got hold of Itunes forgot about using media player at all.
9. Charles Tomaras
To the folks who want to accuse Microsoft of stealing from Apple.
Apple wasn't first with a music store, nor were they first with a portable music player. So what exactly has Microsoft stolen here? They have a player and a store that works with hundreds of portable devices. They have a player that supports 6 different stores right out of the starting gate.
The only way I would accuse them of copying or stealing from Apple here would be if they refused to license thier DRM technology and codecs to competing stores and device manufactures...why that would make them just as bad as Apple.