Slashdot Mirror
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.
Microsoft 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.
Sucks, doesn't it Microsoft?
i think the slashbots would be amazed as to how many people rely on MSN for everything - just like I rely on google for everything - sure, I think to myself WTF?? but changing the homepage for the average user is not an option.
.99 and they will buy and buy in droves.
.sig
case in point - i recently put an ad out for a car that i was selling - a 67 camaro - the car has been sold and the AD has been deleted - i am still getting queries on the car from people who are using MSN's proxy or dns servers - I get about 1-2 call/emails a day -
what i am trying to say is that even though prior to deleting the Ad I put SOLD SOLD SOLD in description space - still i get inquiries - so here is the morale of the story.
People don't read descriptions they only point and click at what they think is pretty
and
People take what is presented to them as reality - if there is an Ad then the car must still be for sale - regarless of whether or not it is sold.
Hence, if people see 99 cent songs on their hompage they will not consider who is selling them - only slashdotters seem to do this - they will only see that the song is
i have no
iTunes hits it big and suddenly the market is flooded with competitors. That's the way it happens. Ultima Online started making a mint and along came Everquest, Dark Ages of Camelot, etc. Nirvana hit the big time and suddenly there was a "Seattle" sound.
After a couple of years only a few players will remain. The rest will either have collapsed, merged or been bought by other competitors.
I will say that I'm surprised that Microsoft is getting into this game now, though. But getting into the console field seemed pretty alien so I suppose nothing is too far-fetched.
What I'm waiting on is a content provider model where one of the big companies - let's say Apple - with access to a huge library of material allows you to create your own mini-store. Sort of like Cafe Press, I suppose. You can populate your store with anything from the massive database (although most will be specialty stores selling particular genres of music). I'm not exactly sure how you could put the proper intellectual property protections on it, but it would really be great if the store "owner" could then upload material (local bands, amateur work, etc) to sell in the store.
My sigs always suck.
1600s - Tulip mania
1920s - Florida real estate boom
1959-62 - "tronics" boom
2000s - xml,b2b, the internet bubble
2003-4 - the music bubble
"There was a time when every oil company went out and bought a fertilizer company, for no good reason. It was as if what was good for Standard Oil was good for Exxon, and so soon all the fertilizer companies were gobbled up" - Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's right hand man in Berkshire Hathaway.
Why should everybody start selling music all of a sudden ? Napster started it, then Apple did it far better, then Real Networks jumped in, then that great equalizer of America - Walmart, now the ultimate monopoly - Microsoft. What do all these tech companies have to do with music ? Perhaps nothing, but then oil giants did't exactly mix with fertilizer either. Such is the madness of crowds.