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Music Biz Figures Into 360 Strategy
C|Net has up a story discussing the thought processes on the Redmond campus, as they plan a way for the Xbox 360 to have a meaningful participation in the music market. Most likely, this will be through the upcoming Microsoft commercial download service. From the article: "The Xbox is widely viewed as a successful consumer product, and the new version will be more deeply integrated into home networks and digital living room systems. Making it a platform for digital music purchases or subscriptions could help solidify a consumer foundation that remains shaky."
First of all, unless the interface for doing it is really good, most people would rather use their computers. I've never used any of Microsoft's music store programs so I can't say whether or not they're worth using.
Also, because the next-gen consoles are not going to support dial-up, people who don't have access to broadband services won't be able to use the service.
Unless you'll be able to transfer the music files off your HD, the service will be completely worthless. MS has said you'll be able to view files on your PC on the Xbox through some form of connection, but I don't know if it works the other way around.
The original Xbox had a file system that a PC couldn't handle, so you can't just take the HD out and stick it in a PC. The only way to do it was to FTP to your Xbox. I'm not sure if this required modding it or not.
Additionally, with a 20 GB HD, an Xbox 360 would be a slightly more expensive, larger, and significantly less portable iPod or MP3 player. Unless they can offer a subscription service for an Xbox that's really cheap to justify possibly not being able to move the songs elsewhere (can you even burn CDs?) I don't forsee anyone buying it.
The article isn't too clear on exactly how the Xbox 360 will play into the online music business, but I can't see too many practical fits for it. Sure you could download music onto it, but why not just download it on your computer and transfer it to the Xbox, or buy a CD and copy it to the HD? Using a gaming console for music is really stretching it.
Now that more and more CDs are now crippled copy protected versions, will the Xbox still be able to rip them? If not maybe people might start to wake up and get angry about fair use going down the toilet. Or perhaps I live in a fantasy world.