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As part of the prep for the Zune launch on Nov 14 that I mentioned yesterday, Microsoft has put the going out of business sign up on MSN Music. Here’s the story from Ina Fried at CNET:
Two years after opening its MSN Music store to compete with Apple Computer’s iTunes, Microsoft plans to stop selling downloads from the site, CNET News.com has learned.
Beginning, Nov. 14, MSN’s music site will begin redirecting music purchasers to either the Zune Marketplace Web site or to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody site.
“After November 14, the ‘Buy’ buttons that you’re used to seeing on MSN Music album and artist pages will change to links that connect you to Zune and to Real Rhapsody,” MSN Entertainment general manager Rob Bennett said in an e-mail to MSN Music customers.
When it opened its online doors in September 2004, MSN Music had high hopes of competing with Apple, touting the fact that songs bought from the site could be played on a variety of Windows Media-compatible devices.
However, MSN Music, as well as other stores that sell tracks in the Windows Media Audio format, have been unable to compete with iTunes, which has maintained its dominance.
The Rhapsody part is due to the legal settlement with RealNetworks, but the Zune Marketplace referral is a bit of a puzzle since the Zune format is incompatible with the PlaysForSure format which is available on MSN Music. The consensus reading of the MSN Music FAQ about the change seems to be that PlaysForSure customers are just plain out of luck unless they go to Rhapsody or one of the other PlaysForSure Music stores. The PlaysForSure hardware vendors that Microsoft recruited for the last round and now have stranded are going to love this.
Update: The above got updated several times based on varying parsings of the MSN Music FAQ.
Despite Microsoft denials, Brier Dudley at the Seattle Times says the iPod Killer is for real and has more details:
Microsoft is indeed developing a digital-media player to compete with Apple’s iPod, and there’s much more to the story.
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What’s being developed is actually a complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products, including a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service.The project, or at least part of it, is referred to internally at Microsoft by the code name Argo — a reference to the huge warship used by the hero Jason in Greek mythology.
Argo is being developed within the Xbox group under the leadership of Xbox co-founder J Allard. His team includes people who previously worked on MSN Music, an online music service that had a promising debut in 2004 but fell victim to Microsoft’s dithering over its music strategy.
Now the company is firmly behind Argo. It has committed hundreds of millions to produce and market the devices.
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It’s a grand plan, but as with a few other big projects in Redmond, it may be a struggle to get it all done by the end of 2006. The project isn’t completed yet, the holidays are approaching fast and the team is under intense pressure to get everything absolutely right.The timing of the hype cycle is perfect, however. Microsoft’s annual meeting with financial analysts is July 27, and it’s looking bleak.
More by following the link, but while the end of the year shopping season is approaching at a furious pace, July 27 seems a little soon to be spilling to the analysts. Dudley also asks the big question, “Can Xbox’s young guns get past the old guard with a less Windows-centric venture?” Looks like they already have. Now they have to deliver.
Chris at LiveSide had this buzz yesterday:
Several sources have indicated to us that MSN plans to relaunch itself as the MSN Media Network, whilst at the same time expanding its range of interactive and content rich services. As well as continuing to deliver content through MSN.com and MSN Music, the MSN Video team is evolving to include Movies and TV. Both these sites have already been revamped at the end of last year and feature show times and reviews as well as the latest entertainment news.
We have also learnt there are plans to launch a new podcasting service later this year, featuring MSN produced content such as celebrity interviews.
More by following the link, but something of this sort is to be expected if Microsoft wants to position MSN as a content distributor while the services transition over to Windows Live. There have been alternate theories about the future of MSN, though.
While Microsoft is thinking about building an iPod competitor, Peter Kang at Forbes reports that Google May Be Close To Developing iTunes Competitor:
Bear Stearns maintained an “outperform” rating on Google and said the Internet search giant may be looking to expand into the MP3 downloading business.
“We believe that Google is in the midst of creating its own iTunes competitor, which we’ve dubbed ‘Google Tunes’,” the analyst wrote in a client note issued today. “We think this is a logical step, now that the nascent Google Video product has been introduced.”
Analyst Robert Peck speculated that it makes sense for Google to create a rival for the popular iTunes service by Apple Computer, given the explosive growth of unique visitors to the iTunes’ Web site.
Gary Price at SearchEngineWatch has a lot more. While this is nominally a Google and Apple story, a Google Tunes would be more competition for MSN Music and Microsoft’s evident aspirations in the same arena.
