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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.
Microsoft's innovation and originality has just hit an all time low....
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Wait.
Is "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones up for download? That'd bring the whole MS circle of crap to a sort of cosmic finality. :)
When life gives you lemons, you CLONE those lemons, and make SUPER-LEMONS. -- Dr. Cinnamon Scudworth, Ph.D
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?
"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
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If Microsoft was into selling Tequila, that would be a good thing.
"Download a bottle of Tequila for 2 bucks, and get a WORM at no extra charge."
Life is not for the lazy.
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.
Never let facts get in the way of MS bashing.
You're missing the point. Of course MS doesn't have a monopoly on online music sales. They do, however, have a monopoly on desktop operating systems. The relevance of that? Quite simple: if MS put an icon on everyone's desktop saying "Buy music online", which leads to Microsoft's music store, then they will be (ab)using their monopoly on desktops to build custom for their new venture.
That's the sort of unfair competition that anti-trust law was meant to prevent, in case you didn't realise.
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.
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.
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?