“With Microsoft’s muscle backing it up, Viacom’s MTV will enter the digital music and content field by launching the public beta of its URGE music and video store Wednesday,” Alyce Lomax writes for The Motley Fool. “Will this add up to big problems for Apple, the current top dog of digital music?”
Lomax writes, “Although URGE will make content available to 100 different devices, the big deal is that it won’t play on Apple’s iPods. (Bear in mind that some of Viacom’s video content is available through iTunes.) While I do have to give a lot of points to this musical offering given MTV’s content and clout, the iPod/iTunes juggernaut is still the hip spot. (Given recent developments, like lower price points on iPod offerings, Apple has no intention of easing up, either.) URGE will probably appeal only to those who have no interest in Apple’s products — which should add up to a more urgent competitive concern for the likes of RealNetworks, Napster, Sony, and the rest than it will for Apple.”
Full article here.
Apple’s Holy Trinity, iPod+iTunes+iTunes Store, will remain unaffected. There are simply too many iPods out there. Without access to iPod, URGE will be left to fight it out in the same old depressing “Also-Ran Shakeout” over Apple’s leftover crumbs. It’s two, two sad consolation races in one! The first contest determines who can supply content to devices used by few and the second will show us who gets to provide devices to play content from services that few people use. The losers get nothing and the “winners” get to eat Apple’s leftovers – which may prove to be a source of some nice profits or we probably wouldn’t still be seeing new entrants like URGE.
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Related articles:
MTV’s and Microsoft’s iPod-incompatible URGE online music outfit faces uphill battle – May 15, 2006
Oppenheimer downgrades RealNetworks based on Microsoft’s ‘URGE’ partnership with MTV – December 15, 2005
MTV-Microsoft URGE music service not targeting iPod, iTunes users; Real CEO PlayedForSure? – December 13, 2005
MTV and Microsoft team up for new digital music service ‘URGE’ – December 13, 2005
reread the MacDailyNews take – its about as blunt as it gets
The ultimate black eye is that this proves the biggest problem with a subscription service!
Namely, if you subscribe to a WMA service for $15 a month, you can easily switch between them (Naspter, Yahoo!, URge are all commodity WMA subscriptions with little differentiation or exclusing tracks).
So yeah, Yahoo! and Naspter (and Real) should be troubled – but the switching cost from an iPod/iTunes customer to URGE is huge – they hav eto give up their iPod!
Taking into consideration that Urge will be the default service in most of the world’s computer it is reasonable to assume that it will gain some market share but not enough to impact Apple. I would be worried if I was Napster or Real.
In my opinion the biggest threat to Apple is cell phones. Apple needs to come up with more attractive technologies for cell phones or maybe its own phone. The ROKR was a step in the right direction but they will need to do a better job. I can assure you that the cell phone is where MS will be focusing on. Gates and Balmer know that they lost the MP3 only device market
Not much going on in Apple World today. Hope everyone enjoys this stuff as the ‘holy trinity’ as MDN puts it, is, one day soon, all there will be to talk about.
Macs, the OS, the entire 4% of the personal computer market, all done.
I have my own personal Urge. I hope I don’t get hit with a lawsuit from Microsoft and MTV both.
“but the switching cost from an iPod/iTunes customer to URGE is huge – they hav eto give up their iPod!”
Precisely. It’s called VENDOR LOCK IN. And you idiots happily endorse it.
…the thousands of third-party iPod accessories. Add one or more to the unbeatable Holy Trinity! Maybe accessories are…. the Pope? Angels? Hhmmmm….
Interesting how you can become unbeatable by making the best products, instead of making mediocre products and clinging to a monopoly like some we could name…
I endorse what I like. This is music, not political liberty. You don’t have to buy any of it, from anyone.
MDN might be dead-on, however, it could also be the first sharp edge Apple has had to really contend with in this market. While MTV isn’t what it used to be, it still holds enough clout to make a dent in the likes of the iTMS. I’m not much of a music video consumer anymore and therefore I don’t know what the quantitative difference is between what Music Videos iTMS and MTV will offer is. My feeling is that, if MTV comes out with significantly more music video offerings than iTMS, Apple may feel a pinch, or even a bump from this venture.
As always, I want Apple to keep and exceed its own market share, and IF there’s any real competition on the horizon for Apple it should only serve to make it a better product and service.
You’ll have to pry my iPod from my cold dead hands.
Dear abc,
Ahem… ‘idiots’?
I think not, bearing in mind that we all get to choose one player or another, and of the choice available, the iPod seems to be very much the thinking person’s choice.
And I’d guess a lot of people agree.
Still, I’m easy if you like to use something different — different strokes…
Best wishes from the UK.
MTV has clout? On music? Do they even play “music” anymore? Who, exactly do they have clout over? 14 year olds? Certainly not someone with a brain.
abc, that only applies because these subscription services use WMA standard, which is a crappy format in my opinion. The services themselves are being locked in by MS. All these services would work with the iPod if they were MP3, but MS isn’t really aiming for that to happen…..
MTV plays music videos?! Wow, when did they start doing that again?
Seriously, MDN is absolutely correct. MS has no traction in the consumer music space and MTV has no traction when it comes to buying an MP3 player. Unless MTV gets exclusive content, what’s the advantage of using their service?
Fighting for the crumbs…
I pee into my own mouth.
It tastes a lot like Microsoft.
Soft tushy!
MTV has clout?
—
Exactly.. I could have sworn it was a press release dated 1997
MTV was cool . . . 20+ years ago.
When Napster, Real, Wal-Mart, and the other “also-rans” start supporting the Mac, I’ll join the chorus of MS fan-boys decrying the iPod’s lack of interoperability.
Until then, SHUT THE FSCK UP and crawl back into your holes, Fudmucker and abc. Your envy is showing!
Holy crap.
Creative is at it again.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1743
I got the URGE to defecate! – pink floyd the wall
Will URGE work with both Windows and Mac OS X?
I didn’t think so.
Silly Microsoft, still trying to play the monopoly game.
At least iTunes rips CDs into MP3 and AAC, unlike Windows Media player which only rips into Windows-proprietary codecs. So lame.
Has everyone heard that Sony is adding AAC support to their new music players? Nice to see someone besides Apple supporting MPEG4 audio. Finally.
Hey . . . I invented the outlining system of thought organization ‘way back in my childhood–and I have the classwork to prove it. Think I’ll sue Creative for violating my intellectual property rights!
Urge is a TURD in a Tiffany Box. Otherwise, it’s the same old sh*t repackaged for the sheeple who gravitate to NonMusic TV, brought to you by ViaCon.
iRiver is launching a new player designed to be used with WMP11 and the new MTV store. The navigation is done on the actual screen borders.
Plays music, MPEG4 video, photos and more
• Supports subscription music services
• Ultra-bright, 2.2” color display
• Built-in digital FM tuner
• Plays downloaded games**
• Integrated voice recorder
• Up to 25 hours of battery life†
• Skip-free listening
• Alarm clock
• Fast USB 2.0 transfers
• 1 year limited warranty
Check out the (8.7/10) CNet review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_Clix_2GB/4505-6490_7-31861628.html?tag=sub
MTV is, above all, a place for 13 year-olds. And, hey, 13 yo’s want iPods. It ain’t no good if it ain’t. MTV is shooting themselves in the foot. At any rate, they should pay more attention. There’s already heavy product placement of iPods in their shows.