MSN joins Net music skirmishes
Microsoft is throwing its hat into the post-Napster online music ring, targeting the same audience rival RealNetworks seeks with its MusicNet service.
MSN Music joins online band Jeremy Hinman, director, MSN Music |
The Redmond, Wash.-based software company unveiled a new MSN Music site Wednesday, the first time it has directly offered music as a part of its online content portfolio.
As technology goes, the new service is far from groundbreaking; visitors can listen to thousands of online radio stations much like those at AOL Time Warner's Spinner.com and other Webcasters' sites. The service adds a recommendation engine using technology bought from start-up MongoMusic last year, allowing listeners to select stations that sound like artists they like, or which fit a particular mood.
Analysts say the service is as much a placeholder in a quickly evolving market as a serious bid for today's customers. All of the big portals, as well as music labels and smaller online music companies, are scrambling to be in a position to attract online music lovers to new subscription services as free music disappears from Napster. Microsoft, with a sweeping consumer reach and a strong copy-protection technology of its own, now becomes a serious contender in that match.
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The announcement of that service, which will go well beyond any label-authorized project yet seen, sent ripples of concern--and hope--throughout the industry. Label representatives argued in front of Congress on Tuesday that the deal proves that market forces are working. Napster CEO Hank Barry disagreed, saying that Congress still needs to step in to prevent the labels from abusing their market power.
But it is clear that the logjam on music licensing is breaking up, even if slowly and inconsistently. Executives at labels say serious talks are ongoing with "all the logical players," not just RealNetworks.
The new MSN Music service is modeled largely after services launched in the late 1990s, with a little of last year's recommendation services thrown in. Like Spinner or NetRadio, it offers music stations by genre, subdivided into such categories such as "Space-Age Pop/Exotica" and "Lounge Vibe."
Like those other Webcasting services, it is legally barred from offering songs on demand. Thus, listeners can search by artist, but can play only stations that are populated by songs resembling that artist.
"I would not call (this service) revolutionary," Vonder Haar said. "But given the relative elegance of its interface and the scale of MSN's audience, it will attract an audience."
Microsoft does plan to expand the service to a subscription model, with downloads of music available. Those plans will depend on negotiations with the music labels.
"We don't know exactly how the subscription-based model will work," said Bob Visse, a group product manager for MSN's marketing division. "But MSN is an extremely attractive option for the labels. We don't own any of the labels, so we can work with everybody."
Taking the farthest step in this direction is a company called IM Networks, which recently forged a deal with Philips Electronics to provide an Internet radio connection inside an ordinary boom-box stereo system. Analysts and industry insiders say this model, in which consumers can tap into a Net radio station in the same way they listen to an FM or AM broadcast, could push Web-based streaming to a new audience.