“Indie-label executives who caught a sneak peek of Microsoft’s music download service here March 18 at the South by Southwest Music Conference give it high marks,” Reuters reports. “The software giant’s offering, the MSN Music Service, is not slated to launch until the fall, at the earliest. It will compete with already up-and-running services including Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store and Roxio’s Napster.”
Reuters continues, “Microsoft is stressing the ease of consumer use of its system, but sources say it is no easier to use than existing offerings. ‘They seem to be implying it’s a big step forward in helping people find content, and I didn’t see that,’ says one attending label exec, who asked to remain anonymous.”
“MSN Music Service will be compatible with most portable players, including Dell DJ and Microsoft’s own Portable Media Center, which bows later this year. The exception is Apple’s iPod,” Reuters reports. “‘Generally, we just wanted people to get excited that they’re going to have other opportunities out there,’ says Christine Andrews, MSN product manager.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Generally, we just wanted people to get excited that they’re going to have other opportunities out there,” said Christine Andrews, MSN product manager. “Other opportunities,” as in, not Apple’s iTunes/iPod. According to The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, the term “vaporware” means, “products announced far in advance of any release (which may or may not actually take place). The term came from Atari users and was later applied by Infoworld to Microsoft’s continuous lying about Microsoft Windows.” [source] An important note: any current legit music download service that does not work with the market-dominating player, Apple’s iPod, has proven less than successful thus far.
Apple has the best selling player by volume.
Apple has the best selling player by revenue.
Apple has the best selling store by volume and revenue.
Apple has the best and easiest-to-use player and store.
Apple has the most-advertised player and store.
Apple has the biggest mindshare.
Apple has uniformly great reviews.
Apple has better pricing than some other players and stores.
Apple was the first online music store.
Apple is the one who gets free press when any competing product is mentioned or announced.
Apple has big partnerships, with AOL, Pepsi, HP, Compaq, etc.
Apple has a reputation for creative products that Microsoft lacks.
Microsoft has bottomless pockets and plenty of so-called journalists on their payroll. Is that enough to counter all of the above? I think not.
That is good. This will give the lackeys a little thing to think about. Now that they push hard to give WMA a start, they’ll have to deal with Microsoft (that is, if they survive till fall). In the meantime, how many iPods and iTMS songs will be sold by then? If you invest in an iPod, you are unlikely to buy WMA and if you invest in iTMS songs, you are unlikely to buy other players. This is a chicken-egg problem Microsoft will have to break.
First post!!
wrong call on the first post numb nuts. that’s why you tools should avoid it.
Oh man… Nagromme beat me to it!
Oh yeah it requires “Passport”. hehehehehehehe.
Better sign up for “Passport”. hehehehehehe
“Passport” is better than Liberty Alliance. And Pasport will not work with iTunes. pppppffwwtttttt……..HAHAHAHAHAA. I am sorry I can’t help it.
Just couldn’t resist a post on this one – the title of this article alone is enough to elicit a “well, DUH”. What a no-brainer. And it’s no surprise that M$ is trying to make it seem like there are “no good choices” out there because they’re not as involved in the market. And they’re STILL not. Totally agree with MDN’s take on M$ = vaporware, too.
It would make more sense for MS to actually buy the competition than compete with them. As there is pretty much insignificant revenues to be gained from selling music online. The only way to make money from this is to have a device directly and soley attached to your music service which will/should give you the profit margins. If MS aim to win with getting 95% mindshare in music downloading they would be a monopoly (again). Since they dont really have anything to gain my guess is they just want to be a player in the market for the sake of being a player.
� Product Announcement !
Microsoft VaporWareXP should be available sometime in the next 11-13 months.
It’ll be half as good as the competions, for twice the money!
Or that’s what usually happens
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oh no, Microsoft copies Apple AGAIN !!!!!!!! and AGAIN !!!!!
I wonder if Bill Gates has an iPod…
Those of you who are interested of Os X history go here:
http://www.levenez.com/lang/history.html#04
http://www.levenez.com/unix/
Very interesting page.
http://www.levenez.com/lang/history.html#07
Who cares what M$ does
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And Microssoff keeps Apple alive, just to have one real compatitor that they even can controle.
Tell me if you liked about that link above.
Harry
You should check that link and you will notice that there is nothing to M$ to control.
MSN Music Service… Just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? They are such a creative bunch over there at Microsoft. This is sure to draw in those looking for something different.
I think they must be targeting the consumers in suits whose every fourth word spoken is “product.”
M$ still doesn’t get it. They are being fined $600 Million for bundling WMP into Windows (and the server thing) and now they are going to use their “illegally” bundled WMP to extend their monopoly into the Online music space. BTW they already got in trouble for routing everyone who wanted to buy CDs online to MSN to buy them. The first group M$N Music Service will kill is the BuyMusic/etc crowd. It is interesting how M$ is just going to screw over their customers, all those who used M$ware and M$ WMA (and paid for it) to set up their online music store. Makes you want to be a M$ customer. Do you think BuyMusic and others will turn around and sue M$ for putting them out of business?
M$ will be opening its music store this fall, it may or may not be as good as iTMS, doesn’t matter. M$MS won’t support AAC, doesn’t matter. M$MS won’t support iPod, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that over time the sheep will follow where M$ says to go. If Apple plans on doing the leading then the time is now. Apple must make FairPlay open to other services, that matters. Apple must sell a small flash iPod micro for about $150 to bring in the cost concious users, that matters. Apple must get other music stores to support AAC. Large numbers of users, spread the technology, even at the cost of $$ margin.
I think Micro$oft feels they have to be in this market because anything that they can’t control may provide the chink in their armor to losing their monopoly.
MSN Music Service = Microsoft’s Sh*tty New Music Service. The only ones that should be concerned are the other WMA-based services.
I’d love to see Apple open FairPlay DRM on the same day M$ opens their new service (whenever that actually happens).
it’s funny…
them using msn instead of the windows media player (that is the reason they’re doing this.. to push media player and bump out real and apple in codecs) is funny because, no one really gives a damn about msn.. it’s not a brand.
HOTMAIL is a brand, that was not created by MS.. but it’s a great name, a great brand… but MSN?
all of this is a bit of a moot point, isn’t it, considering that most people who have WINDOWS can download itunes.. this isn’t about the tiny mac marketshare anymore.. (oh well, 80% of legal music is apples..)..so ms’s leverage is.. what?.. their brand name?! pfft. NO.. their money.. and the xbox.. that’s it
microsoft doesn’t have an original bone in their body…
I feel sorry for M$ most of the time. With all the money they have, they still can’t innovate on their own.
Correction: Hotmail used to be a great brand. It is nothing but a repository of spam now. Yahoo! does a better job filtering spam out and worm infected mails (and the delivery failure notices from the worms).
I think Microsoft employees suffer from attitudes that are also exhibited by the upper management. They care about technology for technology sake. They seem unable to come up with the applications of the technology. They can’t seem to accept that others have better ideas until it’s too late and they have to employ questionable tactics to catch up. And lastly, while they are arogant, they seem not to have enough pride in their work. As long as it’s good enough, they’ll release them. It’s pretty sad since they hire smart people all the time. What a waste of resources and money.
I wish people would stop saying that the music store is a money losing unit. Any time you start a new business it loses money until you have mass adoption. The music store has a model that at the very least makes 10 cents on the dollar. This is a decnt profit on a business that holds no inventory and is reletively wasy to maintain. The music industy is a multi billion dollar industry. Once CD’s become old technology most people will buy their music online and put it on their music player.
So here is my arguement: 10% of a $7 billion dollar industry is $700 million dollars a year. That is significant..almost $2 a share in Apples case. Why do you think that so many companies are trying to get into this market, its not becaise the business model is bad. Yes, Jobs said the model loses money…if he said it was making money hand over fist you would probably see more stores opening up. The long term value is going to come from the music store…short term yes, from the Ipod…but at some point Apple is going to have to flood the market with them at a lower price in order to establish its customer base for the music store. Right before 6 months before the MSN Music service starts would be a good strategic move.
I’m not feeling any great loss by this news. Maybe Glaser has a few tips to share will Bill Gates.
“They are such a creative bunch over there at Microsoft. This is sure to draw in those looking for something different. “
something different is the last thing the majority of ordinary people want. they just want something that fits with their computer. they see microsoft on the music service, they think “ah, that’s the same as windows, explorer, word, outlook…. that’s what i need”
and that’s the way it works. end of story. even if we know it’s all a bunch of mediocre crap.