MTV and Microsoft get Urge to battle Apple iTunes

Stan Beer
Monday, 15 May 2006 15:38

Your IT - Home IT

Apple finally looks like getting some real competition in the online music business with the announced entry of a collaboration between cable entertainment group MTV and Microsoft. A beta version of a new online offering called Urge will debut on Wednesday and will be integrated with the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player, which can be downloaded.

The pricing model of Urge will borrow from both Apple iTunes and the monthly subscriptions offered by services such as Napster, the company that started the music download revolution. Like Napster, Urge will enable users to download songs to computers and MP3 players for a monthly subscription of $9.95 and $14.95 respectively.

However, mindful that the subscription model, which stops access to downloaded music unless the subscription is maintained, has not eactly been a roaring success for Apple's competition, the Urge service will also enable users to buy tracks for download at the same price as iTunes, 99c or Albums for $9.95. What's more, at launch, Urge promises to have more than 2 million tracks available for download just like iTunes.

Things start to get interesting when it becomes apparent that iTunes and Urge are not compatible. Urge will not allow downloads to iPods but will be compatible the myriad of competing MP3 players on the market, such as the iRiver, which have not been able to dent the iPod's dominance of the market.

The entry of MTV and Microsoft into the music market with a serious offering may finally inject some real competition into a marketplace, in which Apple has almost as much dominance as Microsoft has on the PC desktop.