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Microsoft's Online Music Store
jamshedji noted a short story that talks about Microsoft's Online Music Store. The market is already getting quite crowded, so it will be interesting to see what affect the monopoly's entrance makes when this goes down in the 2nd half of this year.
"We have enough money to do something cheaper and longer than you."
Then, they wait and wait... until the market folds... and they are still on top. Who knows if it works or not, but that's their plan.
I use Microsoft everyday... but that part of Microsoft makes my stomach turn.
(See also XBOX)
Davak
As aspiring giants battle for marketshare, soon songs will be 29 cents each.
Learn About Outsourcing. http://www.pioutsource.com
Apple admits readily that they don't make any money off the ITMS, but use it to try and sell iPods. If MS is singing the same song (weak pun, I know,) then what are they trying to sell?
They already have WMA pimps, and will have a hell of a time competing for selection since they have to stay mainstream to have their name on it. The MS iPod killer? What a joke.
This is one of those cases when MS should have just walked away. Let the other guys handle the store and drive users to your products. There's nothing to be gained.
... just look at MSN! (On second thought just trust me on that one.) Even the most non technical people I know find MS sponsered content boring at best and insulting at worse. I don't think people are going to flock to this site with no "street cred".
:)
The only value this site has is it might bleed some cash from MS that would otherwise go to funding SCO.
The story has the MS spokesperson saying "Microsoft has not decided whether to extend its song portability to non-Windows Media devices."
If MS want to take on Apple, wouldn't it be insane for them not to offer MP3s as well? Why would they cripple the service by restricting it to WMVs?
I thought MS would have been quicker than this - after all mycokemusic and others have been using MS's wma format to do this for a while already. However, since all new PC's will probably have a desktop shortcut to the site under 'download music here' (or some similar title) then MS will give themselves a legup over the competition.
Never let facts get in the way of MS bashing.
Hopefully, increased competition in a saturated market will mean an increased willingness to bulk out music selection with more obscure or unsigned artists by at least some online vendors.
One worry, however, is that increased competition does not necessarily mean more money for existing artists. It may just mean, as usual, more extreme attempts to woo the big record companies who own them.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"people rely on MSN for everything"
More people rely on AOL for everything and AOL is going with Apple. Don't forget about the HP deal so it will be right on the desktop. M$ might fidn it harder than they think.
You are right to think they will probubally have success though. If they use the WMV format and only do licensing where you have to keep the service (like all the other WMV vendors have done) then that will be a way to lock their customers in too.
Evolution or ID?
Your post is "insightfull" for a number of reasons but mostly it's a testament to the power of Apple marketing.
You say "Microsoft is so second rate". I recall seeing plenty of similar posts when the Xbox was announced. Most of a postings on Slashdot were about as wrong as it gets then and, I suspect, will be just as wrong now.
So you're saying Microsoft should just "go along with the defacto standard"? Except for maybe portable players, isn't Microsoft THE defacto standard? Perhaps you could just tell Apple to ditch their platform and go with the defacto standard.
Stupid argument, particularly because a) choice and competition is good, and b) you Mac users will bitch and moan about the Microsoft monopoly, but when someone suggests Apple should be the only provider of something it's +5 Insightful. WTF.
I sware it seems just like when you are talking to some salesman who tells you " I will call you back {insert duration here} from now to see how you are doing" and sure as shit that long from now to the minute you get a call from them.
Microsoft must have the timer on 1 year and they set it for any emerging product that looks trendy. If that product is doing well when the tickler goes off then low and behold here is the Microsoft product.
Please. Your second statement applies just as well to Apple.
"iTunes should abandon that proprietary audio/video format they are clinging to and just go along with what the consumers have picked to be the defacto standard."
Somehow, I don't see an MS-sponsored service allowing you to keep rights to the song you've downloaded. If there's one company that is really buddy-buddy with the recording industry right now, it's Microsoft, and the RIAA wants people to pay as frequently as possible. They don't seem to believe in "lifetime licensing" anymore.
KappaStone
yeah, you know, if microsoft had added support, you'd knock them for 'embrace and extend', and since they don't , you knock them for that too.
Apple 's Itunes isn't compatible with 50% of the market of MP3 players. Where's the outcry there?
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
Gurry also declined to say whether Microsoft's music store would be bundled into Windows or featured on its Windows Media playback software.
Well duh, he doesn't have to say it. Of course they're gonna advertise it for all it's worth.
If I was a dumb joe sixpak who just bought a new computer, and there's an icon on the desktop saying "Click here to receive free music from Microsoft MSTunes," then of course I'm gonna click on it.
You're going to open the next version of Media Player and find out that there will be a button to download music from MSTunes, sign up for a free trial of MSTunes, hear the latest and greatest hits, exclusively released on MSTunes, watch a pop concert live, exclusively for MSTunes customers, open up IE and find advertisements litering the MSN homepage advertising free music if you sign up for MSTunes, open up MSWord and have a chance to insert sound files into your documents (for whatever reason), exclusively from MSTunes...
They did it with MSN. They did it with IE. They did it with Media Player. Why ask if they're going to do it with their Tunes site?
There is only one portable player that plays Apple's AAC files. Windows Media can be played by just about every other mp3 player out there, not to mention DVD players and other home audio equipment. Who's being more proprietary, MS or Apple?
I imagine that increased competition in online music vendors will lead to Apple's next version of AAC licensing will be more appealing to hardware makers, or Apple will remain in the #1 slot long enough that hardware makers will get around to licensing it anyway.
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
It's a shame Microsoft has chosen for it to not be compatible with the #1 portable player or #1 music download service.
Starting a new business is about the future vision, not the present reality. Who cares what today's "#1 portable player" or "#1 music download service" is ? What matters is tomorrow's #1.
Well, this could be wrong, but it's one guess on Microsoft's media strategy.
Microsoft's most profitable and popular two products -- Office and Windows -- primarily rely on a single mechanism to ensure their continued dominance. IE probably uses this as at least a secondary mechanism, and the X-Box uses it as well.
The idea is to ensure that third-party-produced content is produced in a form that is only useful to someone that purchases a Microsoft product, jump-start an industry producing content for that product, and then erect as many barriers as possible to anyone attempting to produce a compatible, competing product. They then enjoy a profitable feedback loop as *more* third parties are forced more and more to produce content for their system. Since their product *is* the standard (bugs and all), 100% compatibility is not likely to happen, and can be avoided by making their product a moving target when necessary.
In the case of Windows, it's Windows applications. Windows is the Microsoft-produced tool that allows the consumer to deal with Windows applications. Because Windows is around, everyone develops for Windows, and because everyone develops for Windows, it's difficult to move to anything else, even in the case of poor product quality and pricing issues that are complained about today.
In the case of MSIE, it's HTML/CSS/etc.
In the case of Office, it's Office documents.
In the case of the X-Box, it's games for the X-Box.
In the case of Media Player, it is content in the Windows Media file format.
May we never see th
...But unfotunately the RIAA record companies are not working in a free market, but are a cartel successfully sued for conspiring to fix prices. All the music stores are pricing around $1/song, and it's common knowledge that the stores, such as iTunes, aren't making any money at that price. So I wouldn't hold out for further discounts.
"Your honor, we *need* to embed our store in Windows Media Player to coninue to innovate!"
For crying out loud, Microsoft (admittedly, with the fortuitous help of Bush winning office before penalties were imposed on them by Reno) has already managed to get by regulators with a *Web browser* tied to their file manager and with a built-in misspelling/keyword system that forces you to Microsoft's MSN search engine (and the associated profitable ads) already. If that isn't precedent enough for a judge to let this by, I don't know what is.
May we never see th
The purpose of iTMS is to sell iPods. So tell me again how supporting other MP3 players can help Apple sell iPods?
I don't think Apple is having problems selling iPods either.
You can argue the merits all day, but consumers don't know enough about the formats to make a choice. The real issue here is that Apple picked a format and restrictions that the music industry would accept.
MS is now looking to create a format that they can control, that they can force on Windows users, and that excludes competition that they don't like. This is the stuff illegal monopolies do. They are looking to force a market segment which they now control (Windows users) into making a choice beneficial to MS, rather than allowing market forces to act. The only reason they can legally do this is that Apple has a headstart in market share on the Windows platform, since iTunes & iTMS are available for Windows.
Consumers will arguably be driven to the Windows service ONLY because it will be integrated with MS products and will be one-click-easier that iTMS. Competition seldom results in a win by the technically better product; the simpler to use, better marketed, and "catchier" named product wins.
Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a critical component of spiritual devotion. Jon Krakauer
I don't understand what the big deal is here.
IRL there's a plethora (he said plethora) of different music retailers - some of them huge chains like HMV or Virgin (in the UK), others smaller and more independent. Some of the big dudes have taken a page out of the small dudes books and even carry more exotic flavours of music these days.
Let M$ come to market with their offering and add to the competition. As long as (and this is a big as long as) they stick to the rules of fair-play and don't try to undermine their competition, the consumer should benefit from music downloads that are cheaper than ever imagined possible.
My question is this: How long until some moron in D.C. decides that this means there are "alternatives" and try to make MP3 files illegal?
They have a long way to go. There is way too much market use of the format. It would be like making copy machines illegal at this point in time. Fine you can kill Xerox, but can you kill Cannon, HP, Minolta, Lexmark, and company? It'll be dificult to kill the idea behind a photocopy. It's just as hard to kill the format used by home bands, Public Domain, Court Records, Web Pages, etc. Everything from CDeX to Easy CD Creator to Apple, Rio, Creative Labs, use MP3 format extensively. It isn't going away soon even if you decide to change the gamebook overnight. If the format is killed, the idea of a sharable format will remain, just like photocopies will remain long after Xerox is told they can't do that anymore. (Hypothetical ban on photocopies)
The truth shall set you free!
Napster did not start the online music store craze. If we're talking actual online stores (as opposed to subscription services), Apple was the first. All subsequent ones, including Napster, Musicmatch, etc, have been pale imitators.
"One thing Microsoft could do (and I hope they do), is pay a commission to affiliates that make sales through their store. It would be nice if they opened it up with WebServices, and acted more as a music supply platform than the itms. Of course as long as they stick with wma they're pretty much out of the game."
No they couldn't. You don't think Apple wouldn't do that too? The reason why Apple isn't paying a commission is because they aren't making any profit off the individual songs as it is. To do that, the RIAA's cut would have to be reduced, greatly. The RIAA itself (not counting the music label) is collecting over 20 cents per iTunes sale. Then you add the artist's cut, the music label's, the credit card micropayment charge, and then the 10 cents or so that Apple takes in to pay the hosting, and there's no room in there for commissions. Unless the RIAA's intake is cut by half under your scenario, Microsoft would have to sell loss-leader per song. Sure, they could do that, but they'd take great heat from the institutional shareholders since MSN and the Xbox (not to mention UltimateTV, and the modest licensing fees PocketPC brings in) have been boat anchors around the profitability of the company over all. And unlike Apple, Microsoft does not have a hit portable music player to make any profits from to justify such an entry into a market except for defense of Windows...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
"I bet Napster, MusicMatch, etc... are already getting their lawyers warmed up for this."
Well, its all those company's faults for ever even tinkering with a Microsoft-controlled media file format that made them dependent upon them. I can already foresee that those two will be switching to Sony's proprietary format to be unveiled later this year. That is, unless Apple gets wise and simply buys out Roxio. Toast6 definitely belongs in OS X 10.4 - and eliminating an iTunes competitor (Napster is Roxio) in the process!
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*