“Two years after opening its MSN Music store to compete with Apple Computer’s iTunes, Microsoft plans to stop selling downloads from the site,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “Beginning, Nov. 14, MSN’s music site will begin redirecting music purchasers to either the Zune Marketplace Web site or to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody site. ‘After November 14, the ‘Buy’ buttons that you’re used to seeing on MSN Music album and artist pages will change to links that connect you to Zune and to Real Rhapsody,’ MSN Entertainment general manager Rob Bennett said in an e-mail to MSN Music customers.”
Fried reports, “When it opened its online doors in September 2004, MSN Music had high hopes of competing with Apple, touting the fact that songs bought from the site could be played on a variety of Windows Media-compatible devices. However, MSN Music, as well as other stores that sell tracks in the Windows Media Audio format, have been unable to compete with iTunes, which has maintained its dominance. Apple had dismissed Microsoft’s effort when it launched, saying that its lack of support for the iPod would prevent it from becoming a hit.”
Full article here.
JupiterReseacrh analyst Michael Gartenberg blogs, “Going forward, clicking the purchase link will take you to your choice of either Rhapsody purchase or Zune purchase. Both are significant, since neither of them are Plays For Sure.
“While it’s not like there’s a lot of folks that actually bought music from the MSN music store, it would seem those folks are in a bind. If they start buying from Zune , they will need to get to get a new Zune device, and their existing music won’t go with them. If they go Rhapsody, new stuff they purchase likely won’t work on devices they currently own either, but at least a new Rhapsody compatible device will also allow them to play their old content,” Gartenberg writes.
Gartenberg writes, “I’m surprised Microsoft didn’t try to offer something like replacement for existing content in either Rhapsody or Zune formats. Either way, it shows the problems of picking the wrong format in a format war, especially when one format owns >75% of the market. I wonder how many of these folks will end up going neither to REAL or Zune and in the end, just buying an iPod.”
Full article here.
Merely a presage for Zune. Way to screw your customers yet again, Microsoft. Why do we have such a compelling URGE to laugh?
Related articles:
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Japan’s Oricon bows out – November 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button: Tower Records liquidated – October 09, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell’s ‘DJ Ditty’ flash-based MP3 player is dead – August 22, 2006
More blood on Apple iTunes Music Store’s play button: MyCokeMusic is dead – June 20, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver gives up on digital media player market – May 23, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Sony’s Walkman Bean is cooked – February 13, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell dumps ‘DJ’ hard-drive MP3 player line – February 04, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver pulling out of Europe? – February 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Thomson gives up on MP3 player, CE markets – December 12, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: BenQ withdraws from MP3 player markets – November 28, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Olympus halts production of portable digital music players – November 09, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Rio is dead – August 26, 2005
Apple’s iPod has blood on its Click Wheel: Virgin Electronics is dead – March 08, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store has blood on its play button: BuyMusic.com is dead – March 28, 2004
I was thinking about this as being Blood on the Clickwheel when I read it yesterday. But then I read that they were pointing people to Zune and realized that they probably want to (smartly) focus their energies in one music service.
Blood erased.
(That RealPlayer deal sucks, though.)
Never having looked at the MSN service, can anyone tell me if they offered subscriptions? If so, they’ve really screwed the customers.
As Poster #1 says, this is surely just a consolidation of their download services into a single product, the Zube site? I don’t see where the “blood on Apple iTunes Store’s play button” is. That, of course, may come later. But at this stage, this is a natural consolidation. I’d have been surprised has Microsoft *not* consolidated the brands.
Rocko Socko, but how happy will people be that they have to buy a new player? As far as I recall, the zune store works on zune only. Why would people want to commit to buying stuff from the same company who has just shafted them?
PlayForSure indeed
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Micro$hit kicks customers a$$
OK, so this means no blood on the clickwheel today. Brace yourself for a giant river of disghusting blood on the clickwheel when Zune ultimately fails!!!!!!!
The music you bought from the MSN Music Shop is useless with Zune.
That is the way to treat customers who bought the wrong player. Thank you Micro$ad! They needed a punishment. Long live the iPod!
Remember that all the songs you bought from the iTunes Music Store can be burned to CD or DVD without DRM and transfered to different MP3 player. Apple provides this exit plan to its customers so that they are always on the safe side.
How about calling it “Blood On the MSN Tracks”?
And the consolidation IS caused by its poor marketshare as a direct result of Apple.
Also, this is got to be annoying to the one or two people who actually used it, as their library is going to be affected one way or the other. A hassle.
And, not to tie this story with the last, but no matter what Microsoft does, “you can’t polish a turd, although you CAN Polish it”.
By the way, I couldn’t tell you how many times I said “Ina fried, dude, you are!” back in the 70’s. I do remember once, at a Frampton concert…
@One guy from Finland: playing devil’s advocate here… couldn’t you do the same thing with songs you purchased from MSN Music?
This is blood. The MSN Music Store is closing because it failed. The only reason Zune is coming is because the MSN Music Store and WMA PlaysforSure failed.
Why are they directing to Rhapsody instead of to URGE (MTV)? Wasn’t URGE supposed to be the next MS big partnership thing (before MS came up with its next big thing in Zune)? This is the double-slap to MTV – first abandon PlaysforSure, then abandon URGE. That’ll teach MTV to hitch their wagon to MS.
Haha, whenever you shake Monkey Boy’s hands, make sure to count your fingers afterwards.
This just proves how passe MTV is.
Couldn’t even choose the right partner. (Of course, Apple wouldn’t let them choose it!)
“MSN” anything makes me want to puke. Those three letters mean pain, suffering, expense and lost time in my book.
I wonder if Balmer and Glaser compare notes on favorite donut fillings.
“Cream is better”
“No jelly is much better”
“Well it depends on what you’re drinking with it”
“Hey you’re getting off topic”
Official Name Change Notification Alert-
PlayForSure is being changed. Below is an emerging list of alternatives-
PaidForShit
PlayedForSure
PlayForclosure
PlayedForStupid
PlayedOurBusinessPartnersAndThenLeftThemFeelingStupidWhileAtTheSameTimeMakingAppleLookGood
Of course its blood!!
Reality Check is as usual on the defence of his favourite MS…
Plays for Sure itself has been blooded.. The whole concept of Windows music media files selling on the net has taken a massive hit to its -and MS’s- credibility. It is more than just a store closure, its a concept closure.
So, if that isn’t blood on the iPod, then you guys must be colour blind. And it will merge into the same that’s to come from Zune, you’ll see.
jackspratt — AFAIK, you cannot convert WMA tracks to .WAV or .MP3 within any Microsoft-branded software. A Google search shows there is lots of third-party software to do this; I didn’t check how much of it was freeware vs. shareware. So it’s not impossible. The point is that Apple puts the functionality into its own player, and Microsoft doesn’t.
However, I am largely speking from ignorance here, so please correct me if I’m wrong.
Neither do I see this as blood on the iTunes doorstep. Having said that, its got to rank among THE most clumsy changes of service any company, including MS, has ever devised. …But then again, there really isn’t anything entertaining about MS in the first place, is there.
Its pure (and typical) unmitigated buffoonary on MS’s part. Oh by the way, it may not be blood on Apple’s door step, but it could very well be a clear sign of things to come.
Good luck with that Zune thing.
the thing with Zune is it wont Fail !
as micro$oft will just keep pumping in $ till it works so get used to Zune being everywhere.
sad but there it is.
I’m sorry, but it takes more than big $ to become the standard. Even with all of the $ they’ve pumped into the Xbox over the past 5 years, it still hasn’t passed up the PlayStation line of gaming consoles yet.
Be as pedantic as you like, they have exited a market which they created ie ‘Plays for sure’ – sounds like blood to me even if they are tying to regroup to try yet another marketplace which excludes former allies. They have lost that war so they are simply trying to start a new one.
Just burn and rip. Not a big deal, right FairPlay fans?
Either way, it shows the problems of picking the wrong format in a format war, especially when one format owns >75% of the market.
Like all those years of Microsoft Windows +90% dominance?
Microsoft = making dull cheap crap that barely works
Apple = makes exciting, slightly more expensive, highly desireable and highly functional devices.
Gartenberg writes, “I’m surprised Microsoft didn’t try to offer something like replacement for existing content in either Rhapsody or Zune formats.”
Hmm. The early reports from a couple of months ago indicated that they would replace any iPod/iTunes user’s music with the new Zune music, free of charge. Wonder why they won’t do the same for their own customers. I guess that is the Microsoft way in the Microsoft universe. Glad I don’t live there.
I saw this day coming… right after Microsoft’s .Net Passport controversy. If you’ll recall, Passport was promoted heavily by Microsoft as the “technical centerpiece” of its Web services future. Passport was to become a central repository for consumer online data to include everything from its members credit card information to birthdates.
Lo’ and behold Passport was compromised by even the most simplistic of exploits and Microsoft, who is supposed to be a world-class leader in software technology, had to shut it down until the serious security flaw could be removed. Incredible!
The point is, Microsoft goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure you are making the right choice and then they fsck you over, either by design or by sheer ignorance.
First it was .Net Passport and MSN Music Store, then it was PlaysForSure and Urge, and in another couple of years it will be Marketplace and Zune.
I really don’t think Microsoft gives much thought to what they want to do in life but have more money than they know what to do with… sort of like… Paris Hilton. OMFG Microsoft is the Paris Hilton of computers!
How appropriate, Jobs talking about the “dark ages of computing”
Perhaps we are seeing the end of it soon, most likely not before Iran nukes that Middle East with the nukes they got from N. Korea, thanks Billy!