Up to 1 Million sings on MSN Music Service

[vpalvarez]

A recent Reuters article states the the new MSN Music Service will launce with between 700,000 and 1,000,000 songs. The ITMS currently has a music catalog of about 500,000 songs. Microsoft's foray into the Music download business seems to be Apple's biggest potential competitor. Another notable competitor is Wal-Mart which offers downloads at 88-cents apiece.

In related news it seems the Buymusic.com has closed it's own music download service. Buymusic.com was one of the first PC music download sites available. Buy.com is the parent company of Buymusic.com

 

[P-Worm]

Wow, that is a large selection.

But you know what? The iTunes Music Store seems to have almost everything I look for. Are these extra 500,000 really going to make a differance to me? I'm guessing that a lot of those songs are things I haven't even heard of.

P-Worm

 

[Flowbee]

Unless that additional 500,000 includes The Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and all of the other 'big name bands' that have so far refused to get on the download bandwagon, I don't think it will make too much difference to the average listener. I mean, how many more songs like this do we really need?

 

[idkew]

i recorded myself pooping, and MSFT is going to put it on their music store.


but seriously- i bet the extra 500,000 tracks are going to be some obscure music, and the majority might never be purchased more than a few times. selection is always nice, but a quality selection (like some other music stores) is always better.

 

[Flowbee]

Actually, upon further thought, one way they could easily do this would be to include a lot of international artists. Add current pop music from Japan, India, France, Germany, UK, etc., and they could double the catalog of iTMS without breaking a sweat. Though, I still don't think it would make a difference to the majority of (American) music buyers.

 

[vpalvarez]

Actually, upon further thought, one way they could easily do this would be to include a lot of international artists. Add current pop music from Japan, India, France, Germany, UK, etc., and they could double the catalog of iTMS without breaking a sweat. Though, I still don't think it would make a difference to the majority of (American) music buyers.

This is a very good point, given it would be easy to assume that the ITMS catalog would also experience a substantial jump when they go global. Currently the ITMS doesn't include many big bands that I have searched for including but not limited to: Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Seger (recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), among others.

 

[P-Worm]

This is a very good point, given it would be easy to assume that the ITMS catalog would also experience a substantial jump when they go global. Currently the ITMS doesn't include many big bands that I have searched for including but not limited to: Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Seger (recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), among others.

Well the thing about that is that MSN probably won't get them either. These artists just don't want to be part of the online music thing.

As for out of country artists, I can't see how MSN could get them when Apple can't. It's the music restrictions that are stopping that, not Apple.

P-Worm

 

[Thomas Veil]

I can see two things to worry about here:

One is obvious: individual song sales being taken away from iTMS.

The other is what was implied in vpalvarez's post:

You all know Apple doesn't really make any money on the songs. They're basically a loss leader to sell more iPods, which does make Apple money.

Well, if MS is going to be supplying songs that can be played (without conversion) on devices other than iPod, then they will be enabling more and more sales of those cheap iPod knock-offs...at Apple's expense, of course.

Yeah, sure, Napster and the subscription services are already doing this, but let's face it...Wal-Mart and MS are a pair of 800-lb. gorillas that are capable of cutting into Apple's profits much more than Napster.

Apple's days of being the number 1 music supplier may be coming to an end.

 

[Fukui]

I can see two things to worry about here:

One is obvious: individual song sales being taken away from iTMS.

The other is what was implied in vpalvarez's post:

You all know Apple doesn't really make any money on the songs. They're basically a loss leader to sell more iPods, which does make Apple money.

Well, if MS is going to be supplying songs that can be played (without conversion) on devices other than iPod, then they will be enabling more and more sales of those cheap iPod knock-offs...at Apple's expense, of course.

Yeah, sure, Napster and the subscription services are already doing this, but let's face it...Wal-Mart and MS are a pair of 800-lb. gorillas that are capable of cutting into Apple's profits much more than Napster.

Apple's days of being the number 1 music supplier may be coming to an end.

Well, walmart is the biggest corporation in the world. And MS is also the biggest software company in the world. They will sell at a bigger loss than apple because they can, and might pose a danger to apples chances, that is for sure....

Especially considering that every windows installation has MSN as the homepage by default. Now that I think about it, iTunes, napster, walmart etc. are all about to be Netscaped!

 

[slowtreme]

MS has been hooked into http://www.allmusic.com/ for quite a while, which gives them clickthrough to sell music online NOW, but generally you buy a CD and it's mailed to you on thos stores. I imagine they can leverage that past history to get some bands onboard for online stores that didn't want to go iTMS.

 

[stoid]

Judging by Microsoft's past of anti-competitive business practices I think that Apple and the iTMS certainly needed to be wary of MS getting into the field.

 

[Dippo]

Judging by Microsoft's past of anti-competitive business practices I think that Apple and the iTMS certainly needed to be wary of MS getting into the field.

When Windows starts "accidently" deleting my iTunes music...the end will be near.