Just when I said in my last post that Microsoft was not getting innovative or bold enough with MSN and so losing the battle to Yahoo and Google they make an interesting move. MTV Networks and Microsoft have just announced that they will join forces to design and develop a new digital music service.
The service, to be called Urge, is due to launch in 2006 and will be integrated into a new version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
Plans call for the service to offer more than 2 million songs for download from major labels and independent ones, as well as original content and MTV Networks programs. MTV Networks is owned by Viacom.
Right when reports are coming out that iTunes sales may be down and iPod users could be suffering from being too costrained by Apple's iTunes only approach - along comes a boost for Microsoft and Media Player. If I was Jobs I would get more open with the iPod. Users should be able to access other music downloading services if he wants the iPod to become truly unbiquitous.
But, I'm convinced that Apple will give in in the end - they can't be dumb enough to screw up again by being too proprietary - look at how they lost out in the PC market. So, by the end of next year iPod users may even be able to access Real Networks or Napster or even MTV's service. Let's see. Come on Apple.
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