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."

Comments

But it doesn't sync with my iPod

[JasonUCF]

And I own the most popular portable music player, so um, how do they expect to entice me to switch? Like Real did with their half priced songs? ****a please.

I haven't even up(down)graded to WMP 9 yet, it's so sticky with DRM issues.

I was thinking that they.......

[Blacklantern]

..first need a device to be an "IPod killer" until I RTA
A second leg of that campaign is bearing fruit this year, as a wave of Windows-based entertainment hardware comes to market. Some of these will be portable devices, dubbed Portable Media Centers, running a slimmed-down version of Windows that includes Microsoft's new Janus copy-protection tools. This technology is expected to give a boost to subscription services by allowing the music to be put on portable devices for the first time.
emphasis mine

Why on earth would you need a Windows GUI on a device the with the same comparible size and power of an Ipod?

I wonder if in the future they'll bundle Media player 10 and the MS music store with Longhorn.

Re:I was thinking that they.......

[MustardMan]

I've seen windows CE (later called Pocket PC, later called Windows Mobile) described as a "slimmed down version of windows" on many occasions. Could it be possible that their attempt at an ipod killer will be a "lookie maw it's a music player that also does all this cool PDA stuff too" type of device. As somewhat of a PDA nerd, I can tell you that lots of PDA people have been jonesing for a PDA with a massive built-in hard drive, ala ipod. My ipaq 2210 plays MP3s and even some movie files quite well, and if flash storage wasn't so damn expensive, I would most certainly use it as an ipod replacement, and it's not even designed for it. Make a PDA with controls specifically intended for media playback, a slick looking form factor, and a massive hard drive, and I bet you could take a significant chunk out of the ipod sales.

Screw MS

[nurb432]

Cant they leave anything alone, do they have to absorb EVERTHING, then reduce its quality.

I know i know, yes they have to ruin the world.. but i can still be annoyed at it..

grr. note to self: need to take action.. stop evil empire..

Re:timing?

[dasmegabyte]

IE was given away free and was (still is) a very bare bones browser. Netscape could have survived by one-upping IE on a feature by feature level and selling a low cost, high value Netscape Gold package that enabled surfers to do something interesting.

Instead, they failed to compete even with the meager feature set offered by IE, pumped their money into one of a million useless portals, and they fell apart.

Is this Microsoft's fault, for exploiting their monopoly to crush Netscape? Maybe. But the prevalence of IE hasn't crushed Opera. It hasn't killed off the much smaller OmniWeb either. In fact, Netscape's sorta-funded Mozilla arm is doing fantastic against IE, almost everybody who tries Firefox sticks with it.

Moral of the story: if you're gonna survive competetion from Microsoft, you'd better get on your fucking toes. Make sure you're always one step ahead (not hard, Microsoft maneuvers with the speed and grace of a Cadillac Brougham) and don't ride your success.

I don't think we have anything to worry about from Apple in these respects. Unfortunately, the key to doing more than simply surviving Microsoft is keen marketing in the face of price cutting and a good-enough mentality. Microsoft is, after all, the Walmart of software companies when it comes to price cutting. If they can shave $.11 off the cost and sell at a loss for two years, they have a chance of burying Apple and everybody else.

iTunes will win out

[The_Terminalator]

Something to keep in mind:

1. The Law of Leadership: It is better to be first in the market than better. Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo, who was the second? Bert Hinkler. He was a better pilot, he flew faster, consumed less fuel but no one remembers him. The leading brand in any category is almost always the first brand into the prospects mind. Hertz in rent-a-cars, IBM in computers, Coca-Cola in cola.

2. The Law of the Category: If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in. Who was the third person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? If you didn't know the second, you figure you don't know the third, right? But you do, its Amelia Earhart. Now, is Earhart the third person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean or the first woman to do so?

3. The Law of the Mind: Its better to be first in the mind than to be first in the market. Is something wrong with the law of leadership? No, but the law of the mind modifies it. Its better to be first in the prospects mind than first in the marketplace. Which if anything, understates the importance of first in the mind. Being first in the marketplace is important only to the extent that it allows you to get into the mind first.

from:

The 22 Immutable laws of Marketing

Violate them at your own risk!

By: Al Ries and Jack Trout

Believe it or not they're doing it right!

[linuxbaby]

You know my company, CD Baby, is one of the companies supplying a huge chunk of music to iTunes, Rhapsody, Emusic, Napster, etc.

A few months ago I was at a music conference when I got into a deep discussion with this guy about our love of West African music. He's been doing an African music radio show for 20 years, and has met Fela Kuti, and been in this band doing Afropop, too.

So after half an hour of talking about this, I said, "I'm sorry I don't know your name." - and I flipped around his badge. He was one of the heads of Microsoft MSN Music! I cringed a bit and said, "Oh. Uh. Microsoft? Whoa." I'm generally a MSFT-basher. But I said, "Well --- it's nice to know they have someone like you inside the big beast."

He said, "I was surprised, too, but guess what? They actually found 8 other guys like me, too. People who have been in the music side of the music biz for at least 10 years. People running folk radio shows, and jazz magazine editors and such. Real MUSIC people. And they told us to make the online music store of our dreams."

They're going to be selling the entire CD Baby Digital Distribution catalog - and in fact they pursued us pretty strongly. Even on the tech-side of things, they're really doing everything right. (Yeah yeah of course they insist on DRM. You expected Ogg Vorbis?)

But anyway I just felt you have to give credit where credit is due, and I can tell my fellow Slashdot nerds in advance that I think the MSN Music Store is really doing it right.