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Microsoft Unveils 'Urge' Music Service
CHaN_316 writes "CNNMoney has an article entitled, 'Gates unveils his Urge.' From the piece: 'Bill Gates aims to take over your living room and late Wednesday he unveiled a new music service and new software to do it. Using an appearance with Justin Timberlake, the Microsoft chairman debuted a new music service, Urge, to directly compete with the iTunes music store and interface. Urge launches with over 2 million tracks for purchase or as part of an all-you-can eat subscription, an option the iTunes music store doesn't have. The offering will include exclusive material from MTV.' Begin the living room wars we must." Confirmation of an earlier story on this topic.
I have the urge to point out that Urge is a stupid name.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
The only urge Bill should have is to pee his pants and the ass-whooping iTunes is giving him!
Q: I am short, useless and provide no value. What am I? A: a sig
Geez...just the mention of him appearing with Justin Timberlake just killed any idea of quality and usefulness I might have had thought of concerning this service...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
When will somebody notice that with a sentance that include the words
in a story about a online music shop, that all this DRM is really just shooting themselves in the foot! If it doesn't work on a iPod will it not work on a RIO either? how about a sony walkman? Maybe I should download a copy for free and at a higher bit rate from the internet?
Why would i want to buy/rent music that i can't even listen to?
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
Or dirge. Just the sort of hip, radical, urban and bitchin' cool attitude that is so well understood by old white male executives in grey suits.
The articles are short on technical details unfortunately, so I'll assume that the music is in WMA format, which, for me, is a reason right there not to download it.
Anyway, I imagine this service is much like Napster in its all-you-can-eat mode; all the music you can download, until you stop paying, and then all the music stops playing. While I could easily strip the DRM off the WMA files (assuming they use a current-gen version of WMA, which we don't know), that would take too much effort on my part to make it worth the money.
Message to Microsoft: If you want to attract people who are currently downloading their music for free elsewhere, you have to offer more than what other music stores offer. Let people who download music through the subscription service (with perhaps a decent per-month limit, say, 100 tracks, to keep people from trying to download the entire database) keep their music when their subscription ends. Otherwise, the service has no value to me, because I know later on I'll get tired of downloading music for a while, and quit paying for the privilege to do so; that doesn't mean I want my entire music collection that I've already paid for to stop working.
I'd also recommend using non-DRM MP3, but hey, this is Microsoft we're talking about. Can't expect everything...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
"The offering will include exclusive material from MTV, though it will not be compatible with iPods, which are currently the most popular MP3 player."
In my opinoin, that will doom it in the long run. Sure, people will play with it for a while, but those with iPods won't be happy when they can't put the music on the iPod.
Unless someone gets Apple to open up Fairplay to potential licensees, or to include WMA playback on the iPod. I don't see either happening without a court case though.
I subscribe to Yahoo! Music service for $5 a month for unlimited listening. I listen to it at work on my PC. Not everyone needs an iPod to hear music.
to pull down Bill's breast pocket...yet another Microsoft equipment malfunction!
"These (partnerships) will allow you to enjoy high definition content and take that away on a portable media device" for what Gates called both the "two-foot experience and the 10-foot experience."
Two feet or ten feet, Justin Timberlake still sounds like crap. Whenever I listen to him, I get a temporal lobe malfunction.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I don't know about you, but the last thing I want is any of Billy's Urges being aimed anywhere in my living room.
in a story about a online music shop, that all this DRM is really just shooting themselves in the foot! If it doesn't work on a iPod will it not work on a RIO either? how about a sony walkman? Maybe I should download a copy for free and at a higher bit rate from the internet?
A great man once said, "I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient."
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Check out http://www.urge.com/ it looks like MTV owns the rights to the Urge name and it might not be a MS name decision.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Now, let's see... Microsoft, MTV, Justin Timberlake?
Throw in "50 cent" and we're all set.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Only one of these choices actually makes music. Coincidentally only one of these companies has a successful online music store.
OK, I read the article. I still don't know what the software being released does. Is it a Web application or a traditional one? What OS's are supported? Does this include a Media player, like iTunes, or is it just the retail store portion? Is this being illegally bundled with Windows or offered separately? They go on to talk about support for TV, without mentioning if that functionality is supported by this new service, and if so what programs will be available. Of course I'll never install this crap anyway, being as it is tied to WMP and I can't think of anything worse for the media industry than to be locked into an MS controlled, proprietary format. Still, I want to know what crap I'll have to deal with when working on PCs. Where's the beef?
The offering will include exclusive material from MTV
;)
MTV is involved? So I'm guessing this service won't have any music.
Esoteric reference.
Er... It is not difficult to transfer them to another computer, provided you are the user of both computers, and are prepared to register that fact. If not, then be prepared to burn pruchased music to CD first (which you should probably do anyway...).
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
Bullshit. Napster might switch but MSFT will not use any format that they themselves didn't create/enhance/ruin.
Just look at the ODF spectical. Independant researchers and archivists have been chiming in saying MSFT format is horrible. MSFT could easily support ODF. MSFT could easily support W3C standards. MSFT could of been smart and killed ActiveX years ago preventing the majoity of the viruses currently in existance.
It's MSFT's way or the highway. Now Napster and Real have all but begged for apple to open up Fairplay. And Apple should of done that by now. But in the end Apple is just as bad as MSFT when it comes to those ideas.
of course I still own a powerbook and have no working windows machines in my presence any more.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
If they offered FairPlay up for licensing, I guarantee you Microsoft would be interested.
You guarantee that do you? (Is that you Bill?)
Microsoft doesn't license anything - they developed wmv rather then licensing quicktime and so on.
It is simply not in their nature to pay royalties to another company - especially Apple who've been a thorn in their side all these years.
I suspect Microsoft are waiting to see what happens Real's Harmony before embracing and extending fairplay.
My pics.
The reason, for those who are about to ask, why this is under the "Apple" category, is that this is really an Apple ad in disguise. The slogan practically writes itself: "iTunes: No WMA and No Justin Timberlake as spokesman. What more proof do you need?"
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
Subscription-based music is the way to go. This, combined with the Windows "Plays for Sure" initiative will ultimately give MS the upper hand over Apple in the music arena, unless Apple comes out with a subscription option.
I have a subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited and I've found it is definitely worth the $60/year. Right now I've got 744 songs in my collection, which if purchased at iTunes would cost more than 12 years of subscription fees (assuming the price doesn't go up). I can license 3 computers to access my subscription, so I've got it set up on my home computer, my work computer, and my laptop. The service keeps them in sync so if I add music at home, it gets downloaded at work next time I start the service. Since I download the music to my computer, if the network goes down I can still play music.
If I want to burn CDs I can buy tracks for $0.79. But I haven't needed to do that. I have a Creative Zen Micro to carry around. What's really nice is the Roku SoundBridge is compatible with the service. I've got that hooked into the home theater system (and our wireless network) and I can access my complete music collection (even ripped music) using a remote control.
Ok, I realize this sounds like a commercial for the service. It's not...but I'm very happy with it and think that $60/year is a steal. I used to search the assorted P2P networks but my time has value too and it just wasn't worth it to search for and download music, only to find that I've picked up a bunch of bad tracks (P2P is still great for porn though).
So based on my experience with Yahoo Music Unlimited I think that despite its name Urge will be successful and combined with MS's marketing power may turn out to be an iTunes...well, not killer but maybe wounder.
Amen, though the whole "digitally signing / banning" is DRM, however you want to put it. Besides, if they did what you suggested, non-Microsoft players would simply ignore the digital signing bits and play the music regardless of its status.
The solution is simply to avoid DRM altogether. DRM is fundamentally flawed and will always be broken, because in the end, I have your music on my hard drive, and you're not going to be able to stop me from doing what I want with it.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Christian rock is like some youth minister's idea of what rock and roll is: you don't even have Link Wray or the Rolling Stones, no it's derivative boy band music and hair metal. And Urge is like some out of touch dorky software mogul's idea of hip -- aesthetically perfectly paired with Stryper, Petra and Creed.
``Have you heard about this totally praiseworthy and righteous new music service, Urge? Rock on! Praise the Lord, man!''
"Stable platform"? C'mon. Can't you trolls come up with anything new? Windows hasn't has stability issues since the Win 95/98/ME days. At least come up with something that's marginally relevant or true. This pathetic FUD is getting really, really old and tired.
I don't respond to AC's.
on Janet Jackson's tit.
Oh, no, history shows they're perfectly happy to license (or partner on) anything from anyone, provided the terms of the agreement somehow give MS the right to rip the other guy's balls off at a later date.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
When Steve announces a product, he makes it available. There's no coming soon, or available within 4 years, or in the near future crap...
Steve announces these things and you can buy one immediately. If it's software, you can download it/buy it today.
I think the slow lumbering of MS will make this product as much of an also ran as every other competing service to itunes. Tying themselves to MTV is supposed to appeal to a younger demographic, but what teenager associates MTV with music? Unless they're awake at 2:30 am on a Tuesday, they've never seen MTV air a music video. What older person does? VH1 coulda been a better fit than this.
Yeah, that's pretty much where I stopped reading. I really need to get some of the drugs they must be using down in Redmond. Delusion like that must be an incredible high.
I did like the "all you can eat" idea, though. The real question is "If I unsubsrcibe to the service, does every song in my collection just disappear?" If the answer is "yes" then my answer is "no thanks."
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
huh? you need to clarify your iPod sales numbers because even this press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/feb/23ipodmi ni.html) says 10 million iPods sold and that was when the second gen iPod mini was released close to a year ago. in fact, google the sales results for this quarter and analysts are expecting 11 million ipods the holiday quarter alone.
you missed the part where Justin ripped off a piece of Bill's shirt, revealing his nipple shield.
you are talking complete bollocks.
MS lets you have your music on 2 computers ever, including the same computer uprgraded.
Apple lets you have it on any 5 computers at the same time. if you have 5 computers and buy a 6th, you can just unregister one of the old ones. I honestly don't see how being restricted to only 5 computers simultaneously interferes with any more than a tiny minority of legitimate users. and even when you are affected it just means one less computer - no music is lost.
MS's system on the other hand is guaranteed to affect every user who upgrades, and to effect them in such a way that they lose all their music completely.
"Why should I be forced to burn music to a CD..."
Because the record companies are greedy fucks who don't get it and you're not going to have any sort of comprehensive catalog without a minimum of DRM at this point in history.
Next question?
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
Try 30 million iPods sold (as of Nov 2005).
It isn't even close.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
So, would you rather sell 10 million units of something at a loss or 2 million with a profit?
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."