More details have emerged this week from Microsoft regarding their music offerings. The company is said to be planning an all-out attack on Apple's popular iTunes service later this year. Microsoft launched MSN Music last October, in an attempt to make up ground lost to Apple. However, the service has seen limited user interest. To remedy this, Microsoft plans a new, subscription based service.
The new features to be included are rumoured to be "advanced community aspects" and playlist sharing, according to a Microsoft representative. Also on the drawing board are plans to include a new file format with the update. The new format, which will allow enthusiasts to convert previously purchased songs through the iTunes store to a new "Microsoft-licensed" format, will enable users to play their music on other non-iPod devices.
Currently, Microsoft is in private negotiations with copyright holders to allow for the company to proceed with the service. Microsoft has so far declined any comment on the new service, and has not announced any launch plans.
News source: ZDNet | Neowin MSN Music review
View: MSN Music
The new features to be included are rumoured to be "advanced community aspects" and playlist sharing, according to a Microsoft representative. Also on the drawing board are plans to include a new file format with the update. The new format, which will allow enthusiasts to convert previously purchased songs through the iTunes store to a new "Microsoft-licensed" format, will enable users to play their music on other non-iPod devices.
Currently, Microsoft is in private negotiations with copyright holders to allow for the company to proceed with the service. Microsoft has so far declined any comment on the new service, and has not announced any launch plans.
News source: ZDNet | Neowin MSN Music review View: MSN Music
Ed - Neowin welcomes Shawn as a brand new writer :)
I've read similar issues with even larger libraries on MCE, since it uses WMP as its player. Ah well, roll on WMP 11
Not sure about 'socks'... it will more than likely just blow. Microsoft hasn't been able to innovate lately, so they attempt to duplicate (unfortunately very badly).
People like the buy when you want routine. It most closely resembles actual buying from a store and is more familiar to users.
This is what the phone company I am with has applied to their plans.
It doesn't make sense when you only buy one track a month, or none at all.
people need to stop knocking ideas simply because they don't come from Apple. I guarantee you that if Apple did the exact same thing tomorrow, people would be like OMG genius. when it's all said and done, it's all the same damn song. no matter if you buy it from itunes, MS, wal-mart wherever, it's the same lyrics, same tone, same music, just the same.
Whereas the msn music can be used on over 70 different devices and growing, can be used on an number of players, WMP/Winamp/etc.. I have a zen micro and love it. I can't ever see myself spending the money to get a POS ipod.
Personally I use MSN being the only true competitor to Itunes within the next 1-2 years. The others (napster/rhap/y!/wal-mart) will die out.
Musicphiles will tell you time and time again that the wma file format has better quality then apples aac format.
If you don't like drm then go crawl back under your rock and continue to use your record player....the rest of the world will continue into 21st century.
I thought about getting a Creative Zen HD player before I got my iPod, and I've played with other devices by Creative, Rio, and iRiver, but none match the UI of the iPod, esp. the photos. This is just my opinion, but if it's true to me, it may be for someone else too. You keep your Zen micro, I've played with one and it was nice, but not nice enough to make me want to turn from my iPod.
As meamog says, there are several different iPods. You also confuse the iPod a device with iTunes a software application with iTMS a music download service.
THe iPod is NOT overpriced, the iPod can accept ANY quality of music. The songs CANNOT only be used on one device: they can be used on FIVE computers and UNLIMITED number of iPods. And, no, musicphiles will not tell you that wma is superior to aac.
I will buy an ipod when it will allow me to play more then one format of music one it. My zen allows wma/mp3/ogg/wav. ipod only allows aac.
And while the ipod has five models...the play for sure line is currently at 70 and growing.
I will buy an ipod when it will allow me to buy a song, download it to my computer and transfer it to my device without having to use a seperate program. Currently I an do that with my play for sure device....the zen micro.
The iPod plays aac, wav, mp3, aac, aac w/ FairPlay, Apple Lossless, and audible... More than your zen.
Not a single download service supports all 70... Hell, most of those 70 aren't even portable music players (you've got Roku bridges in there, you've got PMPs...) Napster supports just a handful of players. Rhapsody supports just a couple of players... PlayForSure is a scam.
Your Zen can download music without any software? Wow, that's amazing.
Before you claim you don't understand the situation, I think you should go do some research first and learn about what you (are trying to) talk about.
But yes with no software installed I can transfers any of my music to and from my zen. And with WMP I can get music from MSN and use tansfer it right to the zen. The play for sure firmware on it allows it to be seen by WMP without the need for any extra drivers installed.
The thing that turns me off the iPod is sound quality - nobody seems to pay any attention to SNR when buying a player, for me this is really important. Creative scores bigtime in this area because of their sound card background (where PC cards easier surpass 100db).
Make up your mind then. Can you buy, download, and transfer a song to the Zen without a program or not? In one post you claim you can, then in the next you claim that this requires Windows Media Player (a program). How is WMP any different than iTunes in this respect?
I'm not sure I follow you here. AAC is just as open as MP3 (it is, in fact, the audio component of MPEG4, just as MP3 is the audio component of MPEG1). They both have the same licensing restrictions placed on them.
"Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source"
That's great and appreciated. I hope you don't think I was rude or condescending... the problem is: you are willing to spout off and say things like:
I have yet to figure out why everyone likes the ipod so much?
...without any apparent understanding of the situation at all. It's good to learn, but it's equally bad to pretend you know.
(Sang to the tune of "This old man", you know, the one that goes "This old man, he played one,etc."
Last edited by 34036 on 10 Jun 2005 - 02:16
Plus look at this way... if i buy some expensive exclusively cooked[just for me] meal in some expensive restaurant, then some guests come to my house, i CAN share that exclusive meal with anyone i want, now the questions why can't it be done with music, if my friends bought it, why it's illegal to share it with me if they bought it
Digital music preserves nicely and can be stored and listened to indefinitely without they or anyone ever having to visit the source again
I smell lawsuit.
Maybe because that was one of the terms you agreed to when you purchased the music?
" why shouldn't you be allowed to use purchased music in something other than a Apple device? (if the owners of said music say you can)"
Which is exactly the point. Apple don't own anything as far as music rights go - that evil belongs to the music industry who are all too keen to not get tied down to Apple for the rest of time..
On a moral basis I can't see any benefit to the consumer of having one-brand device being the only thing capable of playing back music on the move.
As for the person saying Microsoft copied yahoo. Well didn't they copy Napster who in turn copied countless other companies with subscriptions based services in other industries. Who cares who copied who. If people weren't using other peoples ideas then iTunes music store wouldn't exist (omg Amazon was around first) or iTunes music player wouldnt be around and there would be only 1 MP3 player on the market (Creative Nomad??). It's so pointless saying "you copied _____ idea" just because every idea isn't an original one. I don't care, it creates competition delivering better products/services to the consumers.
Which means that Longhorn will have to face a version of MacOS capable of running most Win32 applications. I don't know what is the level of completion of WINE, but I know it was capable of running MS Office and Wordperfect on Linux for quite a long time. So, no doubt it will be Apple's next big marketing argument.
I love my iPod but hate the fact Jobs forces me to use iTunes (or MusicMatch). I will be better informed for my next music player. It will support other players.
I also love when I load my playlist up on WMP10, it takes four years to load, and then 5-10 seconds for each track to start. It is awesome, I get a lot of stuff done while waiting for the music. Very productive.
What's a "player" and what's a "player"? Are you saying the next hardware/device that primarily plays music will be able to be controlled by multiple jukebox/audio-visual applications?
If so, you should know that the iPod is well-positioned as much more open than other devices... (Developers like developing for it!) EphPod, XPlay, MusicMatch, PodPlayer, many ohters... Roxio just released a "suite" of apps to interact with the iPod, iPodSoft specializes in iPod software, tons of OSS... Do your homework.
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