Microsoft Finds Digital Music Too Catchy to Resist
A day after RealNetworks (RNWK Quote) and three top music labels unveiled MusicNet, their vision for the post-Napster future of digital music, Microsoft (MSFT Quote) launched the beta version of MSN Music, a free online streaming music service.
Microsoft's service offers half of what RealNetworks' MusicNet promises -- streaming music of all genres to your PC -- but no downloads. Microsoft says it may add subscription-based, downloadable music services to the site at some point in the future.
That makes MSN Music a competitor, although a stunted one, for the massive online music market, which is expected to pull in $2.2 billion by 2003, according to Forrester Research. And it positions Microsoft's Windows Media against its perennial rival RealPlayer. ...
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