Originally published January 4 2006
MTV and Microsoft to develop online music service
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
URGE will use the next version of Windows Media Player and offer more than 2 million songs. The songs will be sold both individually and as part of a subscription package. The service will launch early next year.
The service will also offer music over online radio.
Microsoft will build the technology behind URGE, which Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks will own and operate.
MTV Networks declined to give details on URGE's pricing, but users can expect to pay different tiers for a la carte downloads, subscriptions and for moving rented tracks to a portable music player, said Jason Hirschhorn, the company's chief digital officer.
Similar services typically charge around 99 cents for an individual track and $5 to $15 a month or more for a basic subscription package.
The current version of Microsoft's Media Player has built-in links to several music services, including MusicNow and Napster.
A few months ago, Microsoft broke off talks with record labels to license music for a new online subscription service of its own.
Microsoft already sells song downloads on its MSN Music Internet site.
Under the terms of MTV Networks' agreement with Microsoft, URGE will stand out from other services, Hirschhorn said.
"We will be the preferred service," he said, declining to elaborate.
URGE will not be compatible with Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers or its popular iPod digital music player, a challenge the MTV Networks service will have to overcome, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for Jupiter Research in New York.
"The biggest paradox is the people who are most likely interested in an MTV-branded music experience are also probably the demographic that has the highest interest in the iPod," Gartenberg said.
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