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Microsoft to Launch Online Music Store
yonnage writes "Microsoft is expected to enter the online song store market this week, which should put the software giant head-to-head with Apple Computer in the music business at last.
The launch of Microsoft's iTunes rival will be timed along with the beta release of Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 10, expected on Thursday, sources say. The store will also be in beta mode, lacking some of the features that will be added later, sources said."
Rosoff: Wasn't I supposed to say this bit about how we allow customers to burn downloaded playlists ten times?
Director: Oops. Sorry. I forgot to blank that out.
Rosoff: And what's this Apple logo doing over here?
Director: Like I said, I forgot to blank some things out. We're done. Thanks. Go home.
Finally, an alternative to the monopolistic Apple iTunes!
Oh, wait...
Right is wrong when left is right.
The RIAA should love to be associated intimately with Microsoft for the same reason that a plump girl should hang out with fat girls - to look good by comparison.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Let's see- Micro$osft unites with RIAA and MPAA. Next up will be Micro-Pec Oil, Micro-China Manufacturing, etc.... Does anyone else see the impending doom ?
A group of hackers announced today that they have cracked the DRM on Microsoft's new online music. Upon hearing the news, Steve Ballmer responded by getting mad and punching a hole in the wall.
Unknown host pong.
What they're not telling you its that there are only four songs available through the service.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Many around here think Microsoft has been a big pile of Number Two for quite a while now...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
I have come to expect this kind of quality from Microsoft and I sure hope that they don't let me down here. It seems like they may have rushed this project so I'm confident that they'll continue their record of excellence.
I boycott signatures
Money processing is instead expected to be full working from day 0!
SeqBox
These people have no shame!
Isn't this how all their software works ?
I heard Michael Bolton changed his name because he sucks, and not some other guy by the same name.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
The store will also be in beta mode, lacking some of the features that will be added later, sources said.
Like security?
There oughta be a law!
Michael Bolton
No talent ass-clown.
There's been an alternative for a week or so.
google?real+ipod
I know some of the other posters say similar things, but I think it's good to make how it works explicit.
:-).
You buy a copy of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 87.
You click in the "My Music" folder.
The happy little Windows XP(tm) screen comes up with the bar on the left with lots of options.
The top option is "Buy music from the Microsoft Music Store".
Click on that option, IE comes up and the downloads are automatically added to the My Music folder. You can then use the music player features built into the Music folder to play them.
It will be easy and seamless. It won't be as slick as the iTunes+iPod combo, but like Windows itself, it will be Good Enough.
By the way, I had an interesting talk with a friend of mine about why he likes Windows. He's a crusty old man, and it turns out the pretty girls in his neighborhood turn to him for their Windows problem fixes in exchange for sexual favours, and the guys give him beer. He blesses Bill Gates every day for putting together such a "shitty product"! He also likes the challenge. So he's well stocked with beer, women and challenges, which makes for a fun retirement indeed.
I had to laugh. He has a point
D
I for one would like to welcome our new online music store overlords :)
you live in 1 fucked up neighborhood if the girls are such complete sluts.
Converting a song to WMA is kind of like bootlegging a concert by sitting in the nosebleed section of a coliseum and recording with a palm-sized dictaphone with a built-in mic. Sure it sounds a *little* like the music. But who would want to listen to it. Much less *pay* for it.
I'd rather listen to my dad play Glenn Miller Orchestra tunes on a kazoo than be subjected to anything encoded in WMA.
Don't even get me started on all that "Please wait while we contact the server and check out your license to play this song..." crap that goes in Windows Media Player.
If this is going to be the competition for iTunes, they've got nothing to worry about.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Interestingly enough I want both sides to lose. Thus I hope what happens is each company gets in a price war until eventually each song costs $0.01. Then I want a mass download to ensue and for the RIAA to send the bill (that is who they pay, isn't it?) to Microsoft and Apple. This will suck both companies bone dry and the influx of money into the RIAA will cause such a gravitational force that it will collapse in on itself and get sucked into another dimension.
Oh yeah and it'd be nice if some of the money somehow made its way to me and got me a gmail account too.
I don't care if they have the best software design in the world for their music store: if they don't have better hardware than the iPod, it isn't going to matter.
They have something MUCH better than Apple as far as hardware goes... Freedom of choice.
Right! This is more of that great M$ innovation! Bringing new products that no one has ever heard of before to consumers! I applaud their originality on this one!
This just in...Microsoft has announced it will begin to make a new line of deli sandwiches which will five times tastier than subway or quiznos. The sandwiches will contain small amounts of cocaine to keep people eating them since they taste so shitty nobody would ever touch them. Microsoft has also announced in the same report that the amount of cocaine in each one will slowly fall so that the company can continue to make the profit that it so badly needs. The FDA has said nothing about the cocaine; some insiders say they are ignoring it because everyone in the government is in Microsoft's pocket....never saw that one coming!
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05
listen to my dad play Glenn Miller Orchestra tunes on a kazoo
Got a torrent?
I tried reading the EULA once... I got lost somewhere around "...first born child..."
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Yeah, but as a convicted monopolist, trying that now would be dangerous.
HP would be willing to fight MS over something like this,
especially since HP sees iTunes/iPod as a way to differentiate their
offerings from the likes of Dell and Gateway.
*sigh* back to work...