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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Friday, September 10, 2004Windows Media Player 10 includes competing music storesSeattle PI: "Tucked into one corner of Microsoft Corp.'s latest digital-media program is a case study in the balancing act often required when the company decides to expand into new markets. Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10, released last week, includes a new feature that the company calls the 'Digital Media Mall.' Accessed via a drop-down menu in the upper-right portion of the player, the mall lets users access Microsoft's MSN Music store, a preliminary version of which was unveiled last week. It's similar to Apple Computer's iTunes software, which provides access to the iTunes Music Store from within the iTunes music player. But unlike the iTunes software, the Microsoft player's mall also connects to other music stores -- such as Napster, WalMart.com, MusicNow and others -- that are competing for market share against the MSN Music store ... the inclusion of the competing stores also works to the advantage of Windows Media Player users. In addition to giving access to a larger number of songs, it lets users download tracks from a variety of different stores and collect them in unified playlists that can be burned to CDs or transferred to a portable player ... Many more music services are expected to be added to the media player as time goes on ... Microsoft points out that services in the mall are not required to use the Windows Media format. In theory, at least, that means RealNetworks or Apple could put their services into the media mall by signing a Windows Media licensing agreement and building a plug-in to allow the Windows Media Player to play back files in their format." [ Posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink ]
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