Beta of MSN Music launched

[MacBytes]

Category: Microsoft
Link: Beta of MSN Music launched
Posted on MacBytes.com

Approved by Mudbug

[nagromme]

A preview version? Does MS really need to reinforce its reputation for doing things halfway?

They feature the Black-Eyed Peas, Mac-style glassy buttons (of course), little arrows in circles to "view more," and the iPodiest-looking player they could find (Creative--shown very small and referred to as "this player").

And a lot of text clutter.

Sure they have copied some Apple stuff here, but it's no iTunes.

The Search doesn't work when you press Return even Nor does it work that great once you click the OS X-style "Go" button. I did a random search for "kings cry" on iTunes and MSN. iTunes found some exact and almost matches. MSN found nothing. But when I searched for individual matches from iTunes, MSN did have some (not all) of them. But you'd never know it from your search. Other searches were equally weird.

(Then again, MS isn't much into search these days, it seems. MS seems to have scrapped the much-hyped WinFS search stuff in Longhorn, while Apple already has theirs working great in Tiger.)

[macridah]

I checked the MSN website ... WEAK. From my experience, it only works on IE. Somethings I did in IE did not work in firefox ... ummmmm. Surprised-NOT.

[AndrewMT]

Um, is this it? Is Microsoft even trying?

[Phat_Pat]

this seems like crap. iTms is waaaaaaay better

[zon7]

Same as up.
Dn't work in Firefox or Camino or Firefox on WinXP or anyother.
Just IE

[Windowlicker]

Originally Posted by Phat_Pat

this seems like crap. iTms is waaaaaaay better

um.. where do they have the browse thingy? it's superior when looking for new music and not exactly knowing what you're looking for.. well, good luck MS. the only bad thing about this is that people will automatically choose the MS service, because they don't know about anything else. I wonder when the "hey, I purchased some tunes from you and they don't work with my iPod" phone calls and emails start rolling in to MS customer support ;D

[cslewis]

eww. It's a bad imitaion of iTunes.

[HiRez]

Originally Posted by mac_head101

eww. It's a bad imitaion of iTunes.

Of course it is but does it even matter? I remember a lot similar being said of Windows 1.0 (and everything after that). *sigh*

[dekator]

Originally Posted by mac_head101

eww. It's a bad imitaion of iTunes.

Yes, and so was Win 95... So conspicuously inferior to the Mac OS, just as IBM's machines at that time... So ?

The truth, I think, is that the limited choice Apple is offering (iPod) and the binding to exactly one shop (mostly) works in the beginning. Apple are first. Ok, but it will never last. Apple needs to open up the iPod to other formats (.wmf, .ogg), offer their iTMS songs as MP3s and port iTunes to Linux, to be really cool and stand a chance in the future...
Sure, it's all nicely integrated and works but in a market that comprises virtually the whole world, you can't play it that monomanically...

And get me right, I really want to see Apple get it right this time and *stay* top...

[Lancetx]

Originally Posted by AndrewMT

Um, is this it? Is Microsoft even trying?

Agreed. If M$ is going to be taken as a serious competitor to the iTMS, they'll need to add quite a bit before it goes final. This is rather unimpressive to say the least beta or not.

[satty]

(Un)Fortunately I don't have Windows, IE and American Credit card incl. American billing address:

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS


Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
Internet Explorer*5.01 (or later), which supports 128-bit encryption
Windows Media Player*7.1 (or later), we recommend the latest version
A 233 megahertz (MHz) processor (such as an Intel Pentium II or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor) or faster
64 megabytes (MB) of RAM or more
Speakers and sound capability
Payment with a valid credit card with a U.S. billing address

[1macker1]

What's wrong with it. It looks good to me; clean, sleek and not too cluttered. I like the movie and tv listings that's availible. I won't be buying any music from there, but it looks crisp.

[nagromme]

Or just wait for it to be done, like Apple did

I guess the fact is, it's probably not going to be improved much at all over this... but they can make people THINK it will be better than it is. Without calling it a "preview" they couldn't so easily do their usual... "We don't have it now, but stick with us because we'll do it right one day! Honest!"

Now watch--this will get lots of press, and EVERY single article about it will give Apple free publicity by mentioning iTunes! Poor MS.

[johnnyjibbs]

It's not compatible with Macs: system requirements state Windows is necessary. Besides, they'll be protected WMA files so of no use to us and iTunes will not be able to convert them (save for burning to CD and reimporting).

[1macker1]

iTunes need a radio feature for local stations. Not just to see what they playing, but to listen to the music. This is nice.

[CubaTBird]

try safari enhancer? maybe it will work if u set safari to ie in the debug menu

[Cannibal]

Originally Posted by AndrewMT

Um, is this it? Is Microsoft even trying?

no... no they aren't. and unfortunately they really don't have to. there is a legion of devotees who will use this "service" because M$ tells them that it is good. so they don't have to put in effort. the client base for Windoze is so used to lackluster quality and performance that they really wouldn't know what to do with real programming architecture.

but maybe that's just my take on it...

-Cannibal-

[SiliconAddict]

Originally Posted by AndrewMT

Um, is this it? Is Microsoft even trying?

No they aren't. That is MS's methodology. Their first 3 attempts in just about anything typically suck butt. After a few attempts though they get it “right” enough to be compelling to the average consumer. This is their tactics. Slowly eat away at the competition. Do you think Netscape’s demise occurred with IE 1.0? Load up Windows NT 4.0 sometime and take a look at IE 1.0 or that might be 2.0. At any rate its more then a joke. Its barely a browser. This is where MS is right now with their music store. Barely there. Give it til next spring and see where they are. Unfortunately apple doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to battle their online store. MS is going to be getting partnerships left and right and is going to soundly kick the crap out of Apple because they squandered the time they had to establish themselves as a standard. In a couple years from now I’ll bet cash WMA will be the psudo standard and Apple will be down to 50% of online music sales down from 70%.

[MorganX]

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

Apple because they squandered the time they had to establish themselves as a standard. .

You can't remove hardware (iPod) from the equation. You can't create a standard when you want to be the only one who profits from it. There never would have been PC compatible if IBM hadn't created the PC using a non-proprietary architecture. There wouldn't be an x86 standard if Intel didn't share intellectual property and subsidize IHVs.

Apple is trying to monopolize a market that can't be monopolized becuase we are not homogenous. If PCs couldn't be modded, customized, and custom built, another platform would emerge.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

MS is going to be getting partnerships left and right and is going to soundly kick the crap out of Apple because they squandered the time they had to establish themselves as a standard.

I think companies will GLADLY partner with Apple too, in cases where Apple finds advantage in letting them. The iPod and iTunes are "what's cool," and MS didn't just change that. Companies won't all prefer to partner with MS automatically.

Originally Posted by Abstract

I don't see why this option is bad if they want music in .wma format? Its not about what file format is better......it's what store the customers choose to shop at that's important, and whether iTMS is better or not is irrelevent.

There's a second issue besides just choice and one product vs. another. There's MS's attempt to dominate another industry, pushing their WMA and their DRM on people. If I HAVE to have DRM, I'd rather it not be in Microsoft's control. So in that sense, Sony 8TRAC and Real are "choices"--and choice and competition are good. But I won't say the same of WMA.

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

the various music labels will NOT give a music store auth to distribute their wares without a DRM wrapper. So what is the only option for MS?

Agreed. I don't fault any online store for having DRM--I fault the pirates and the RIAA. And I don't fault any of them for not using Apple's DRM--they can't. I may fault them for other reasons, but not that one

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

No. Because Apple is being an *** about Fiarplay. Lets think about this a second. If Microsoft did make their tracks in AAC Fairplay, or if Apple made the iPod compatible with WMA, how many MORE iPods would Apple sell?

Well, Apple would sell more iPods if it had WMA maybe. But they'd be damaging the integrated SYSTEM that is the iPod + iTunes. iPod users would have a lower-quality experience if they didn't use iTunes. And in the process, Apple would be helping MS use WMA to dominate another industry. That would not be good.

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

Sorry. My Bad. Apple's production and distribution channels suck ***.
Yah. The rest of the industry is going to wipe the floor with Apple unless they get their act together. I've got two friends who want iPod mini's but can't get them. I thought they said that the Apple store said 1 month to get one. Way to keep up with demand Apple.

Mini demand is because of two things, neither of them Apple's faults;

1. Huge demand, beyond what anyone expected

2. Limited supply of drives small enough to fit in a Mini

Apple has been selling as many as the drive supplier can make--and that's a lot and growing! More than that is impossible.

And yet despite the Mini backlog not being Apple's fault, they've done things about it: promoted it less, and promoted the regular iPod more. That's all they can do.

[The Red Wolf]

"What? There is money in online music stores? Quick, go monopolize that. If you can't buy them out, beat them. If you can't beat them, hire Mafia."

[bwintx]

Originally Posted by macridah

I checked the MSN website ... WEAK. From my experience, it only works on IE. Somethings I did in IE did not work in firefox ... ummmmm. Surprised-NOT.

Yep. Saw this interesting JavaScript above the <HTML> tag (using Firefox from a Win 2000 PC):

var userAgent="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; 
en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9";
var meetsReqs=false;
var indefli=false;
var rpsub=false;
var pcontr=false;

Can you say "buymusic.com"?

[savar]

Originally Posted by macridah

I checked the MSN website ... WEAK. From my experience, it only works on IE. Somethings I did in IE did not work in firefox ... ummmmm. Surprised-NOT.

Yeah, doesnt work at all in firefox (win XP) for me. When I click on song titles I get nothing. I tried "Open in a new tab" and it just loads the same page again when you click on the title of any song in an album. In fact, that little circle next to each song apparently has the same link as the song title itself...so whats the point?

Of course, when it starts showing up in WMP all over the world, well...let's just say I'm glad Apple has this much of a headstart. Its going to need every ounce of it to battle MS.

[mms]

Originally Posted by savar

In fact, that little circle next to each song apparently has the same link as the song title itself...so whats the point?

They probably just blindly copied Apple with the little circles... MS can't think for themselves.