As expected, Microsoft announced today at CES a new music download service in partnership with MTV, called “Urge”. From the CNN coverage: The offering will include exclusive material from MTV, though it will not be compatible with iPods, which are currently the most popular MP3 player. Not that non-compatibility is a shock to anyone, anywhere, but I’ll ask the expected question anyway. Why? Why not make a service that peddles MP3s that will play on any player, including iPods? Why not set your goals on making the best download service there is that plays on every music player out there? (Of course, I’m no evil financial genius. I’m sure it makes perfect sense to Bill Gates’s people.)
Microsoft doesn’t ever want to win its customers by selling them the best, most reliable, most compatible product there is. They want to create the something and lock you into it. They want to be the HMO for the digital world, where if you want service you have to use theirs. (Of course, Apple’s guilty of this, too. You can’t play music you buy from iTunes on non-iPods, but at least they have the advantage of iPod compatibility.)
So why do I get so worked up about all this? I guess it’s because at the moment there’s still a chance that the bad guys won’t win. Given the choice between buying a song that only allows me to make x copies and one that has no restriction, I’ll take the one without the limits. No one wants DRM, but we’re paying for it anyway, and many people don’t even know it. It’s clearly to our advantage as consumers for Microsoft to release a music service that offers music that plays on all devices (as it would for Apple to release an iPod that plays all the music, for that matter), but Microsoft thinks it has the power to throw it in, anyway, and force us into it. It’s not like many other companies have the resources to strike up deals with record companies and produce competing products, so in the end we’ll be stuck with whatever we let them stick us with.
Also, “Urge” is a terrible name.