Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a preview of its long-anticipated MSN Music Service which will initially offer music aficionados 500,000 music tracks for 99 cents apiece and $9.99 per album. MSN plans
to have 1 million music tracks available, the same number as rival Apple offers, over the next couple of months, adding tracks each day. MSN has licensing deals with all five major music labels and
3,000 independent labels. MSN Product Manager Christine Andrews says there are no plans, so far, to introduce monthly subscription fees for the service. The U.S. preview period runs through
mid-October.
Microsoft, a latecomer to the online music market, will compete against market leader Apple, along with a slew of services from providers including Roxio's Napster, RealNetworks'
Rhapsody, MusicMatch, Sony, and Wal-Mart. While Apple's iTunes store may have nearly 70 percent of the online music market, according to Forrester Research, Microsoft believes there's plenty of
opportunity. Apple's PC market share remains in the single digits and for Microsoft, the MSN Music Service is part of a larger strategy to extend and grow its Windows franchise. "Digital media is a
very big focus for the company and Windows media and MSN are part of that," Andrews said, adding, "We want to make it easy for consumers to embrace a digital media scenario."
Microsoft will
unleash a marketing campaign around the MSN Music Service in October with mostly online promotion across the MSN Internet network. Andrews credited Apple with creating awareness for the online music
category via millions of dollars worth of advertising. Microsoft will position its service by promoting the fact that consumers can download tracks into any one of 70 different Windows Media
compatible digital devices. "We think choice is important, and we hear from consumers that choice is important," Andrews said, adding, "The [Apple] iPod is a great device, but there are only a couple
of different configurations."
Microsoft likely will use the fact that its online music service has the ability to download tracks to any portable digital device in its marketing and promotion of
the new service. Behind the assertion is the implication that Apple's iTunes doesn't share the same ability. However, Apple iTunes users can download iTunes files, rip them to a CD, and then transfer
them to the MP3 format, in order to play the tracks on devices other than iPods.
Some points of differentiation for the MSN Music Service, according to Andrews, include an intelligent music
search engine; the service's accessibility via the Web or the Media Player; the option to purchase CDs through links to Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com if a track is unavailable; access to 50
streaming radio stations on MSN Radio; an "e-mail this page feature" to share playlists with friends; and links to MSN Messenger.