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MTV Bails on Microsoft's URGE Store
Marlowe writes "MTV's once-ballyhooed partnership with Microsoft appears to be all but dead. MTV is teaming up with RealNetworks to form Rhapsody America, with Verizon handling wireless distribution. It's a big blow to Microsoft, too. 'With the creation of Rhapsody America, the writing is on the wall for MTV and Microsoft's Urge music store partnership. Although the Microsoft-MTV marriage was announced with great fanfare, it was likely headed for divorce court right from the start due to Microsoft's plans to turn PlaysForSure into a second-class citizen with the launch of the Zune — and its self-contained music ecosystem.' When asked about the future of Urge, MTV Music Group President Toffler was terse. 'We are in discussions with Microsoft now and will be on Windows Media Player 11 until further notice,' he said. While the Urge brand will ultimately disappear, Toffler said that 'a lot' of Urge's elements will live on in Rhapsody America."
ballyhoo (bl'-h')
n., pl. -hoos.
Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
Noisy shouting or uproar.
tr.v., -hooed, -hooing, -hoos.
To advertise or publicize by sensational methods.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Perhaps it's time for Microsoft to bail on Ballmer.
The whole Urge thing lacked the strategic finesse and vision Microsoft would otherwise be capable of.
There's only one strategic foundation that can challenge Apple+iTunes and Urge was not it, and the Rhapsody-MTV-Verizon approach is not it either.
Hope is the currency of fools
'all but xxx' is an American (or perhaps more generally English) idiom that means 'about as close to xxx as you can get without actually being there yet.'.
On the the other hand, the phrase 'anything but xxx' means the speaker doesn't think the thing is anywhere near 'xxx' even if other people do.
Hope this helps.
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