Microsoft Readies a Rival To Spotify 216
Posted
by
kdawson
from the never-step-twice-into-the-same-stream dept.
from the never-step-twice-into-the-same-stream dept.
Barence writes "Microsoft has confirmed it is preparing to launch a music streaming service. The service will be a direct rival to Spotify, hugely popular in the UK (but unavailable in the US), which allows users to stream music for free in return for listening to around a minute's worth of advertisements every half hour. 'It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work,' said Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN." The article claims that the new service will boost the popularity of the Zune player, though how this is to happen is not explained. There doesn't seem to be a close tie-in between device and service, as there is between the iPod and the iTunes Store.
Re:Microsoft feeling the pinch (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, I could just download whatever I want off of TPB or whatever, but I don't do it - not only because I don't want to break the law and get sued, but because I still don't personally feel comfortable consuming something which I did not pay the artist for. (Don't jump down my throat, I'm not judging those who choose to do it, but I'm just saying for myself no matter how I justify it, I'd be getting something for free which I shouldn't).
Get some good, targeted ads, make arrangements with the labels, and get this going in a good direction once and for all. Oh, and making the Zune not be an ugly piece of shit would help too.
My solution... (Score:1, Interesting)
This way I keep getting new tracks in mp3 format which are more or less ready to copy to my mp3 player - and it is legal where I'm located
Re:Why not last fm (Score:3, Interesting)
So why should i use this instead of lastfm which features no adverts per half hour of music
Because it's the fastest music player with the smallest footprint available that lets you listen to *any song* you want.
You can search and play a song in milliseconds.
There is no equal, period.
Re:Had this for decades... (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently went to Oslo, from the UK, and when i switched on Spotify I received Norwegian adverts!
Re:Microsoft feeling the pinch (Score:3, Interesting)
The fact that they slash 5000 jobs is no indication of how well they're doing.
My prediction... (Score:3, Interesting)
...is that will use Silverlight. My initial reaction to this was "My God, it will suck: it won't be cross platform". Then it occurred to me - Silverlight is cross-platform. So not only would this allow MS to target a larger market, it would get SL on to a huge amount of machines. Oh, and it could be an additional 'pull' factor for Windows: You get free streaming, but you can only download (onto a device) if you have a Zune. And you can only use the Zune if you have Windows... or some such strategy like that
Obviously this is only my personal prediction, but I'm personally expecting this to be an offline app with embedded Silverlight stuff. Either that, or a .NET app (but I'm uncertain on that - what's the status of Mono with OS X?)
Re:Microsoft feeling the pinch (Score:4, Interesting)
because I still don't personally feel comfortable consuming something which I did not pay the artist for.
Do you really think that with all the middlemen still in the loop that listening to 1 minute of commercials per 30 minutes of music is going to generate any significant revenue for the artists? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that any major label music available on spotify is counted as promotional per the artists' contracts with their distributors and that they get exactly 0.0% of all such revenue.