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."

Comments

gg no re

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple already won this game.

Re:gg no re

[PopeRatzo]

Apple already won this game.

Um, I think the millions of users of The Pirate Bay might disagree.

Sometimes, the game goes not to the strongest or the swiftest, but to the one that's free.

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would any company want to partner with Microsoft? They seem to drop commitments at a whim (PlaysForSure) and do not seem to ever has their partners interest anywhere in their list of priorities.

Are there any examples of Microsoft ever participating in a mutually beneficial relationship with another company?

Re:Why?

[badasscat]

Are there any examples of Microsoft ever participating in a mutually beneficial relationship with another company?

Ironically enough, the one instance I can think of is Apple.

MS's $500 million investment probably saved the company from bankruptcy. This was at the low point of Apple's market share, reputation and stock price. MS propped them up because they knew Apple customers were potential MS customers too, even if they didn't use their OS.

The deal also called for a new release of Office on Mac, which ended up being superior to the Windows version and no doubt made the Mac a more acceptable Windows alternative for some people. In exchange, all Apple had to do was make IE the default browser on Macs... something that's now long fallen by the wayside.

That deal has expired at this point, but Apple is now a stronger company than they were at that time, and MS is weaker. I'd say Apple actually got the better end of that deal. (So maybe it wasn't "mutually beneficial", but Apple didn't come out on the short end.)

Re:Why?

[admactanium]

MS's $500 million investment probably saved the company from bankruptcy. This was at the low point of Apple's market share, reputation and stock price. MS propped them up because they knew Apple customers were potential MS customers too, even if they didn't use their OS.

it was $100M. apple was far far away from bankruptcy at the time. however, apple did need to sure a version of office of mac for their future viability. ms likely propped them up because they heard the DOJ breathing down their neck.

That deal has expired at this point, but Apple is now a stronger company than they were at that time, and MS is weaker. I'd say Apple actually got the better end of that deal. (So maybe it wasn't "mutually beneficial", but Apple didn't come out on the short end.)

i agree. whether it was foresight or just a company trying to stay relevant, the hat-in-hand maneuver that jobs pulled in order to get bill g on that big (brother) screen behind him ended up being one of the best strategic moves in a while. apple was able to keep office on their computers. but since then, step by step apple has taken little bites out of ms.

make itunes and the ipod. suddenly quicktime is installed on a huge number of windows computers and aac is a heavily-used music codec as opposed to wmv.
build os x on a unix core to attract both home/consumer users and hardcore geeks.
make ie the default, then build safari.
switch to intel chips and offer boot camp to run windows.
make a little innocuous works suite with just word processing and presentation software in iwork, then slide out a spreadsheet a couple years later.
each quarter apple is breaking their previous unit-shipment record.

the barriers to entry for macs are coming down slowly and methodically. it's almost as if somebody planned it that way. apple has stopped making the huge shifts in strategy that we've grown accustom to since jobs' return, but they seem to still be making progress on their own agenda. the main issue facing apple now is how to manage their growth and figure out how big they can get before they become bad. how much can they grow before they start to become what they hate?

as a long-time mac user, i'm happy to see the market playing out this way. it's the most interesting time to be a mac user since 1984.

Re:Why?

[mcmaddog]

Ironically enough, the one instance I can think of is Apple.

MS's $500 million investment probably saved the company from bankruptcy. This was at the low point of Apple's market share, reputation and stock price. MS propped them up because they knew Apple customers were potential MS customers too, even if they didn't use their OS.

$500 million? Saved Apple from bankruptcy? Microsoft invested $150 million in non voting shares and Apple had over $6 billion in cash in the bank at the time. They were nowhere near going bankrupt. Also Apple customers aren't "potential" MS customers, MS is the largest supplier of Mac software after Apple. What saved Apple was the return of Steve Jobs and his focusing the company on profitable products like the rollout of the iMac.

Also, except for Office 6 when MS tried to use the same code base for Mac and Windows versions, the Mac version, starting with it's debut for Mac before any PC version existed, has often been thought of as better. Partly due to MS' use of the smaller Mac market to test new features that if well received become part of the Windows version, but also due greatly to the developers in the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft which are true Mac users.

Re:Why?

[Ed Avis]

While I agree with you in principle, to be fair, Microsoft dropped "PlaysForSure" after the deal with MTV to create URGE had already happened.

Isn't that the point? They made a partnership and persuaded MTV to use PlaysForSure, then after making the deal, they decided to effectively sideline PlaysForSure and switch to the Zune instead.

BTW,

"Our music brands, MTV, CMT, and VH1 can now be found on multiple screens as our audience has made it crystal clear that they really want their music accessible wherever they might be," said Van Toffler, president of the MTV music group. "The collaboration with these three companies is like a perfect storm, really striking the right balance to deliver the purest digital music play available."

It's like a perfect storm. Whoah. Is Van Toffler a made-up name?

No tears shed here

[Arathon]

This may be somewhat off-topic, but I can't mourn this passing. "URGE" always seemed to me to be one of the ugliest, dumbest-sounding names of all the music download services available. And its front-row presence in WMP11 has always annoyed me to no end.

Plus, who really cares about these services anymore, now that WalMart is offering EMI and Universal MP3s without DRM for cheaper than iTunes, at 256 kbps....

MTV...Music....

[jellomizer]

What does MTV have to Do with Music.... Back in the 80s it had a bunch of music videos but now it more kinda of a TV Teen magazine, that sometimes shows a music video. As for a huge loss for Microsoft probably not it might be a minor one. But I think this is the lease of Microsoft Worries. Like those billions of dollars they accidentally paid for to help support Linux.

Because they are businessmen

[WindBourne]

Everybody thinks that they will come out ahead by dealing with MS. But MS's game is NOT tech, but marketing and legalize. The absolute best that you can expect is to come out even. Until business ppl realize that you will be screwed by dealing with them, they will continue to take this path. The interesting point on all this, is that if you pay attention, you will find that only a few ex-MS execs. will deal with MS until they are monster size themselves. While they are little or medium size, they avoid contact with MS. Shows that some of the MS execs are not idtios.