Slashdot Mirror
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.
None of these hurdles is trivial, particularly in a business such as selling downloadable music, where actual margins remain only a few pennies per song sold. The real core of Microsoft's goal has little to do with e-commerce and everything to do with selling Windows, analysts said.
No it has nothing to do with selling Windows. It has to do with furthering the MSFT domination in every single technological market that they can slide their way into. The XBox hardware doesn't make them money but they are still getting their name out there and making money via some other channel (additional hardware, monthly Live subscriptions, royalties, whatever).
This is going to be no different. Get the people used to the MSN Music Store. Get them buying songs. Get them buying hardware. Get them used to seeing it in Windows. Make it an integral part of Windows. DRM the BIOS, DRM the OS, and DRM the Music, DRM the hardware/player, RIAA is happy, people get their Music, people are happy, money comes in, Bill is happy.
When the market is comfortable with seeing WMP and MSN media everywhere they are going to LOVE seeing it in their favorite theatre, on their favorite DVD, etc. Then the MPAA is happy and they will happily embrace the format which they are currently rejecting.
What I want to know is when WMP is going to just NOT work when you won't let it phone in what you have been watching/listening to. I've been waiting for that day to come. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in WMP10-1 or WMP11. It's not like 99% of the people don't know that it is doing it and it's not like they care if it is. Most of these people don't have firewalls and even if they do they happily click to allow it to connect out permanently. Anything to make that annoying little box stop popping up.
Tin foil alert level is currently Orange but may raise when the MSN music store gains a foothold.
No mention of the DRM restrictions on the songs...
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
The launch of Microsoft's iTunes rival will be timed along with the beta release of Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 10
http://www.micro soft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx
WMP10 Beta has been out for a while, so that's kind of confusing..
Microsoft will immediately become number two, and perhaps number one, if not almost straight away, with a shoddier product, and years earlier than they'd otherwise have been able to had it not been for Apple once again pioneering this market.
If Microsoft could get enough MP3-player vendors to sign up for compatiblity, it can once again screw Apple out of the market.
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 ?
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.
but really, if all of the others haven't really made a dent in the iTMS market share, how does MS intend to?.
I guess the same thing was said a while ago by the executives at netscape.
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
Here they are, richest company on the planet, monopoly in their marketplace, and they aren't satisfied.
It's not about "choice" -- it's about Microsoft.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Microsoft has to find a way to be better than iTunes, rather than just selling music in the .wma format. Otherwise, I don't think they'll be beating out iTunes any time soon. Challenging it, yes. Ending up the most popular, no. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I would think by now that those who were going to purchase music online would have started with iTunes or one of its competitors.
Isn't it surprising that Microsoft is entering this business late and big? Now that it's proven profitable, all that 'built in advertising' stuff the windows group can do kinda leverages things pretty well... Your windows supplier can now know:
what you read online
what you listen to
what you buy
and what you watch
so it can 'market' to you better... I know this is nothing new but maybe these 'free market' guys should have been closer behind Msoft's breakup... If Microsoft goes into commercial sales as their main product, like Apple is doing right now, how much will they be selling?
My little site.
These people have no shame!
I quit using Napster because I didn't really like the Windows Media Player, or the Microsoft DRM technology. Why would I switch back just because MS has their own music store? The music store marketplace is becoming too saturated now and the only way for anyone to distinguish themselves is with a great hardware accessory - like Apple's iPod.
Apple is well in the lead and I don't see them losing the lead unless MS comes up with something better than just another "hey, me too!" store.
Five Dolla Moddy-Moddy?
All he seems to be able to do is copy other peoples' ideas, then act like he had the idea first.
Windows was copied from Apple Macintosh, but now nobody can use the name "Windows" except Microsoft.
Oracle and PostgreSQL are SQL servers, so Bill grabs the name "SQL Server" and acts like the market for databases is supposed to belong to him.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
There's no way that Microsoft's music store will anything like the cachet that the iTunes Music Store has. Microsoft, as a hip brand name, trails far behind Jenny Craig Mac & Cheese. But then again, if they make their songs playable on every non-iPod device out there, they'll pick up the lion's share of the market in no time. Good luck getting it all to work right, though.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
"The store will also be in beta mode, lacking some of the features that will be added later"
No to be a picky bastard or anyhing, but projects without full features was called alpha state to me, last time I checked, while full featured, still in-test is beta.
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!!!
..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.
"There is only a one in six billion chance that you actually exist"
THis has nothing to with profit. They have a monopoly, they can (and do) subsidize most of their business units with their monopoloy profits from office and windows. This has to with "cutting off the air supply" of apple. The idea is to destroy the competition not to make a profit.
Having said that the profit will come in later. If MS is able to leverage their current monopoly to gain a monopoly in online music distribution they will be just like the RIAA. They will be able to charge everytime anybody buys music. They have been able to leverage one monopoly to gain another one in the past so it's certainsly doable.
The only question remaining is what will the governments do about it. My guess is "not much"
evil is as evil does
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..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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!
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
Cheers,
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
\ MS will say that they are at the top of their game, until they are (which in some cases is never). They have the money to make mistakes like no one else. They can have no features, barest functionality, poor implementation, and still create hype and users - all through the marvel of $$$.
The Apple iTunes store doesn't have anything to worry about for a long while, but MS will beat their dead horse until its a threat. Not a big threat. Nobody cool is going to use MS's service.
At the end of the day - that's what it's all about.
IE was given away free and was (still is) a very bare bones browser. Netscape could have survived by one-upping IE on a feature by feature level and selling a low cost, high value Netscape Gold package that enabled surfers to do something interesting.
Instead, they failed to compete even with the meager feature set offered by IE, pumped their money into one of a million useless portals, and they fell apart.
Is this Microsoft's fault, for exploiting their monopoly to crush Netscape? Maybe. But the prevalence of IE hasn't crushed Opera. It hasn't killed off the much smaller OmniWeb either. In fact, Netscape's sorta-funded Mozilla arm is doing fantastic against IE, almost everybody who tries Firefox sticks with it.
Moral of the story: if you're gonna survive competetion from Microsoft, you'd better get on your fucking toes. Make sure you're always one step ahead (not hard, Microsoft maneuvers with the speed and grace of a Cadillac Brougham) and don't ride your success.
I don't think we have anything to worry about from Apple in these respects. Unfortunately, the key to doing more than simply surviving Microsoft is keen marketing in the face of price cutting and a good-enough mentality. Microsoft is, after all, the Walmart of software companies when it comes to price cutting. If they can shave $.11 off the cost and sell at a loss for two years, they have a chance of burying Apple and everybody else.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
How are AACs from iTunes music store any different? At all? Both players play regular MP3s, so you get the same "freedom" regardless.
I for one would like to welcome our new online music store overlords :)
I think its terrible that this will be another lower-than-CD-quality-for-more-$$$-than-a-CD online shop. Distribution costs? Negligable compared to distribution of 5" circles of plastic. Profit? Yes please
They (*AA et al.) bitch about P2P killing their business. Since joining a closed p2p network, I have bought more CDs in the last 6 months than I have in about the last 5 years. http://www.ubernet.org/ Music ripped with Exact audio copy and encoded with LAME using the --alt-preset's. Also some OGG and FLAC.
Car analogies break down.
With all the brainpower here, it's surprising that nobody's asked "why is Microsoft doing this?"
When iTMS came out, MS said explicitly that it wasn't going to get into the music download business. It's partners (or, I suppose, potential victims) already had large investments in online storefronts, and its other partners already sold WMA-enabled devices.
So why did MS decide to get into music?
I think the HP/Apple deal had something to do with it. One of MS' biggest customers went with another vendor (Apple). That must have galled MS. The PC side has device vendors and music stores, but there was no single-vendor solution. The WMA hardware vendors were probably complaining to Mama that MS wasn't helping them on the software side.
And when you look at it, how stable is are the WMA-based music stores? Real? Napster? Wal-Mart? Any of them could flake out at any moment, deciding that the business wasn't good enough. None of them are stable enough for a real long-term partnership.
By providing an MS music store, MS removes one barrier to WMA-based music stores: vendor instability. It supports the WMA-licensees. It opens up licensing opportunities.
Note there's no consumer benefit here, really.
The question is will MS be able to run this afterthought storefront?
iTMS is about the iPod, not Apple. People use iTMS because it's easy and nice to use, and it works with their pod. MS Music is about...hardware vendor support?
It'll be interesting to see how long MS Music lasts, and more interesting to see who the first few licensees will be.
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.
The store will also be in beta mode, lacking some of the features that will be added later, sources said.
Seems to me that lately, Beta no longer means a testing phase. It now means "Hurry and saturate the market with an incomplete product so we can make money now and take business away from competitors!"
The company is helping to create a "Plays for sure" logo that will be used by device makers and online music services to assure consumers that purchases from participating companies will be compatible with each other, sources familiar with the plans say.
I think its fair to say then that, somewhat ironically, Apple won't be one of their partners. I'm fairly sure that Jobs won't want a "Plays for sure" logo on iPods, or iTMS. Which makes me wonder:
Given the huge popularity of iTMS and the iPod so far, will we see the beginning of another "Betamax vs VHS"-style technology battle? Will this be the move that forces Apple to license FairPlay in order to keep sales of iPods up? After all, if this is likely to be bundled in future versions of Windows, or even - perhaps - in future interim releases, then that's some 9x% of the planet with a music player that's tied to services that aren't apple, and using a music format that is not compatible with the iPod.
Or (somewhat unlikely), is this going to be the service that people finally realise what it means to be locked into vendor platforms? After all, all I saw on zdnet was a mention that it used Janus for DRM encoding - what was not mentioned was what limited rights was it permitting you to exercise? Surely if something like this hits the mainstream music-buying public there will be some kind of backlash.
The ways of gods are mysteriously indistinguishable from chance.
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
What do you mean IE is a bare-bones browser? IE's 4.0 supported XML / CSS at a time when Netscape 4.0 was a baby.
I have used IE 5.0/5.5/6.0 for developing applications from 2000 onwards and i have always the features packed in to IE far, far better than Netscape.
IE supported XHTML/XML/XSL scripting and DOM model before Netscape even knew what they were. Microsoft implemented most standards including CSS stuff like tags which were proposed by W3c.org when no other browser supported them.
IE was lightning ahead of other browsers when it came to implementing new standards.
Before you start generic Microsoft thrashing make sure you know the facts.
I use Firefox now.-:))
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
much like IE, it'll just get integrated into windows. you won't even need to be in media player, you'll just think of a song and it'll download a JANUS version of whatever song you wanted or didn't want. It will also not work with your ipod or let you transfer it to another computer. If you try, it'll just charge you.
then an xbox will show up in the mail, and you'll hear bill and steve screaming like little girls off in the distance.
http://www.rustyrazorblade.com
Many people are concentrating on the threat to iTunes. However another important aspect of this is MS once again screwing over its partners, in this case, companies that licensed technology from MS to run wma based online stores. iTunes has enough name cachet and differentiation (and the most popular player iPod) so it might survive the MS monopoly abusing onslaught, but other wma based online stores are going to get slaughtered. It will be a similar situation to Telstra broadband competitors in Australia. Teltra used to be the government owned monopoly for decades. Hence they own the vast majority of the legacy backbone. They compete with Telstra but also rely on buying their backbone from Telstra. This means tactics like recently how Telstra lowered the price of their cheapest broadband *below* the wholesale price they were selling it to their competitors. And we know that MS is just as bad or even worse in terms of sleazy monopoly abusing tactics than Telstra. Also there is evidence to suggest that Telstra does things like telling people broadband is available in their suburb, but only if they are inquiring about their products. If it is a competitor's, Telstra's report comes back negative. (The guy who published this then had his broadband from Telstra revoked because it was a "mistake"). So wma online stores will be competiting with the company that provides the "backbone" AND the software vital to their survival. Not a good position and we know what MS is like.
Also none of the wma online stores have the features that iTunes at least has to differentiate it from the MS store. They don't use different software. Their software and any prominance to any particular online store is supplied by their biggest direct competitor! What store do they think Windows media player will give prominance to. And they know perfectly well MS' business practice history esp. with regards to bundling e.g. Netscape. Any popular hardware player that plays theres will play MS's. Even the name of the format "Windows Media Audio" suggests that it is a MS product and lots of people have the idea that MS products work best with other MS products.
Basically they are screwed. Their biggest competitor controls their fundamental technology and the way their customers use it AND has a reputation for ruthlessly abusing their monopoly powers. They might as well just close up shop now and be done with it. Only MS and iTunes will survive. But this is what you get for trusting MS I suppose...I wouldn't be surprised if MS only co-operated with the other stores long enough to get the required intelligence on how to run an online store as they've done it before and I can't see MS ever having any ideas about wanting to share a market with any competitors. Sharing is not part of the MS vision.
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?
Comparing lossless to lossy compression isn't fair, so do what I do and convert the lossless stuff to MP3 for your favorite portable (I burn them to CDRW's which play on everything I've got).
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
iTunes only authenticates a song purchased by a user that hasn't been played on the computer before. Once you enter the proper password, it no longer goes through the authentication process, and you can play offline to your heart's content.
Coincidentally, this can also be used to circumvent the five comp limit on protected AACs; authorize five computers to play your tunes, then use Apple's web form to de-authenticate those machines. The nifty thing is, this process is only done on Apple's end, so the five computers still think they're authorized. You can now allow five more machines to play your songs. As long as the first five never go online ever again, you're set. ^_^
Thanks a million. Push Start to replay.
Unless they have resolved the biggest issue I had with DRM'd WM files then there's not a chance in hades that I will ever use the service. And I will recommend against the service on that basis.
The basic issue is that DRM'd WM files only work with one installation of Windows. If you lose your box, you lose your music. If you have to reinstall (a rare occurrence with Windows, I know) you lose your music.
The worst that can happen with iTMS files is that if you forget to deauthorize your computer before reloading you lose the ability to play that song on one computer. But you can still play the songs.
A relative of mine was telling me that in his industry (auto related), the nationals will open stores near independants and cheerfully run them at a loss for over 10 years to close them. We used to look to government for this kind of foreward thinking. MS is cashed up enough to cut off anyone else's oxygen.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Indeed I have, though my intentions were initially true. See, one of my three machines was an old PC that suddenly developed a case of "hard drive ain't workin' no more", so I obviously couldn't access the iTunes library and deauthorize it. So I looked through Apple's page and saw they had a form set up for just such an emergency situation (remote deauthorization). When you fill out the form, it deauthorizes all computers under the given iTunes account name. However, until the aforementioned computers attempt to check whether a song can be played, the comps themselves are not "aware" they have been deauthorized (since the procedure only takes place on Apple's server). Enjoy!
Thanks a million. Push Start to replay.
How is this diffrent than Microsoft's WMA encryption? Every music label I've worked with that utilizes Microsoft's DRM technology issues PERMANENT LICENSES... that is the authentication only occurs when the content is first purchased, and in fact you can backup and restore the licenses 3 times, which means you only get the play the song on 4 machines.
Once you have a license, there is no need to be online.
I don't think a lot of people know what they're talking about when they talk about Microsoft DRM.