The Telegraph is exclusively reporting that Microsoft is planning to launch a streaming music service, similar to Spotify, later this month.The service will allow users to stream music for free and also download to own. Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, Microsoft's news and entertainment portal, told The Telegraph exclusively: "Music is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently. It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work."
Spotify users can stream tracks for free from the web service which is supported by advertising. If a user pays for a Spotify subscription then for £9.99 a month those tracks will not be interrupted by advertising.
Bale also hinted that the service could be tied in with Microsoft's Xbox gaming network, Xbox Live, but would not confirm how Microsoft would link the services. It's not yet clear what Microsoft will charge for the service and whether there will be an ad-supported service at no charge.
How are Zunes any less locked down? And at least Apple makes iTunes for Windows, Microsoft refuses to even release a recent version of Media Player for OS X, and certainly no software for the Zune.
Apple makes iTunes for Windows because people need it for their iPods, it's because they want money, not because they're so nice. Microsoft doesn't stand to gain as much money by making WMP for OS X.
That may be true but MS did release many software for OSX (office, exchange, etc). WMP is an operating system media player designed for WINDOWS only. Microsoft office is not labeled WINDOWS office, see where I'm going?
As my personal opinion, i have found Itunes one of the worst media player's I have encountered for windows. If i recall properly, it required "quicktime" to be installed, it had this nagging apple update service, and it decides to have its GUI artifacting whenever I played a video game. I never had a chance to play with ITUNES on macs for comparison, but I bet it is way better than Windows' versions. I think its a marketing technique, and Microsoft does it too with a mediocre office (compared to Windows) released for OSX.
Until you are allowed to operate the device fully without additional software, I would say both the ipod and zune are locked down.
Microsoft Office for Mac generates more income then Office for PC. Think about it. I'll explain later if people don't get it.
Think!
Think!
ummm, cuz the PC users all Bit-Torrent it? Idk.
Well, they might sell a couple more zunes, and lets face it, Microsoft need as many zune sales as they can. They already produce a huge amount of software for Mac.
Think!
Never heard of that. Where'd you hear that from?
Think!
ummm, cuz the PC users all Bit-Torrent it? Idk.
Pretty much. The majority of Office for Windows sales revolve around volume licensing. Conversely the majority of Office for Mac sales are full RRP sales off the shelf or via Apple.
I've actually heard it twice now -- once at Microsoft TechEd 2008 from one of the CE and once at an Apple conference last week from an Apple CE (who commented that MS and Apple actually work relatively closely on Office for Mac -- or at least have a good working relationship).
Just kidding.. Would be nice to have, but I could easily get a Sirius XM widget and use it on my PC.
msn music or something...
Just for your desktop i believe.
... I bet Spotify are soiling themselves though. Microsoft have a habit of destroying startups like Spotify
That does usually happen, haha.
Or, more likely, they will make a crappy app, but include it with every version of Windows ever sold, most people won't know any better, and some will proclaim it the greatest streaming app ever made, despite the fact they have never used anything else.
No kidding.
That is, not just ad financed and free, but cheap subscription and zero ads at all too.
But you can trust Microsoft to make three different versions of every single product:
Microsoft music streaming (MyStream maybe)
Zune Pass
Bing Music (Oh they will make it.)
Just like Skydrive, Live Mesh, and Office Live. They need to combine, not seperate.
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