Jari Ketola
14 Aug 2003 15:01
Microsoft has opened a pay-per-song service in Windows Media Player 9 environment. The service, labeled MSN Music Club is currently available in U.K.
Songs in the service are priced at $1.21 per track or $12.75 per album. Subscribers, however, can download tracks for $0.99 at cheapest.
"This is a very significant boost to the European on-line market," says Mark Mulligan, a Jupiter Research senior analyst. Mulligan sees consistant prices and comprehensive catalogue the two most important features of the service.
One of the big attractions of iTunes has been the fact that the service permits users to burn tracks on CD or store them on a portable device. It's unclear whether or not Microsoft's service allows this.
The European Commission is already investigating if Microsoft's bundling the Media Player with Windows is against the European antitrust laws. At least for now Microsoft has a free advertisement spot on virtually every Windows desktop in Europe.
Provided the use of the tracks isn't too limited, MSN Music Club might turn out to be very successful indeed.
Source:
PCWorld.com