[MW Forums]

Microsoft Corp. is offering a "preview release" of MSN Music, its answer to Apple's popular iTunes Music Store. The music download service is available in the United States exclusively for users of the Windows operating system, and is built in to Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 10 software as well. Microsoft's introduction gives the public a look at what Apple may be up against as the company enjoys a dominant position in the digital music download market. more

[spimster]

Re: "Apple's iPod works exclusively with ...."
this is simply NOT TRUE ... you've got it backwards!
The iPod works with nearly ALL sources of music and filetypes.
Besides my own CDs and lots of other kinds of audio, I can purchase a MP3 from lots of places and put them on my iPod.
It is the iTunes Music Store which ONLY works with the iPod.
!!!

[chewygoat]

This is of no value to Mac users except in that I hope it will make Apple up the bitrate on their iTMS tracks. 128 kbps just is too low. They should be using 160 kbps minimum and preferably 192 kbps. To be able to keep their number of song counts for their iPods they could offer both 128 kbps and 192 kbps for those that want it.

[Uncle_Deercamp]

Y'know, when you're this late for the party you might as well stay home and watch SNL.

[Winski]

Boy howdy is that an ugly site. Search engine sucks. Can't just click a song to preview, but I guess that's because I don't dare download the new version of Media Player. This will need lots of improvement before it is accepted.

[Tivor]

In reply to:

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...using variable bit-rate (VBR) encoding, with an average bit rate of 160Kbps and a peak bit rate of 256Kbps.

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That ought to draw a good portion of the downloading crowd to MS's offering. Hmph.

[Winski]

So everyone sez that if MS Music Store gets The Beatles then they will rule. How can this be true? Real Beatles fans already own the CDs, and would most likely rip the songs to their PC (& down to their MP3) rather than buying again from an online music store.

[bfunk2k4]

is a mp3 at 128 kbps as good as AACat the same bitrate? Is Apple going to have to talk about the "bitrate myth" now? Even if AAC at 128 kbps is just as good as WMA at 160 kbps Apple will face problems where people will want the "better" bitrate. They should up the bitrate even if it is already better just so MS can't use that in ads. No point in trying to explain to the public.

[MacGizmo]

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It is the iTunes Music Store which ONLY works with the iPod.

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Well, that isn't entirely true either. All you have to do is create a disk image and burn an "Audio CD" to the disk image which creates an .aif file. Then you can take that .aif and make it into an MP3, MP4 or whatever other format you want and the DRM is gone... no restrictions at all.
It's easiest if you have Toast, that way you don't have to actually burn a CD.

[Nobody]

Where are the places where I can buy music MP3s from? Since MP3 doesn't include any digital rights management I was under the impression that the music labels don't allow selling via the MP3 format. I would love to be able to buy MP3 music files.

In reply to:

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I can purchase a MP3 from lots of places and put them on my iPod.

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[tallscot]

"Today, Microsoft announced their new Web browser, Internet Explorer, which is late to the Web browsing party where Netscape's Navigator dominates..."

[Nobody]

And the combined market share percentage for Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox (compared to IE) is lower than the market share percentage of the Mac (compared to Windows). Hmm..., I think Apple's on to something with their embracing of open standards.

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"Today, Microsoft announced their new Web browser, Internet Explorer, which is late to the Web browsing party where Netscape's Navigator dominates..."

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[Peter Cohen]

In reply to:

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Where are the places where I can buy music MP3s from? Since MP3 doesn't include any digital rights management I was under the impression that the music labels don't allow selling via the MP3 format. I would love to be able to buy MP3 music files.

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One spot is AudioLunchbox.com, which we've posted articles about before. They sell indie music, exclusively -- no major label stuff here, and no DRM. When you buy a song, you have the choice of either using 192Kbps MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, depending on your preference.

[Nobody]

Nice review here about using the Microsoft Music Store from a Mac user...
"First Look: Microsoft's Music Store Beta Site. It Works."
http://www.mac360.co...c360/more/first[/u]lookmicrosoftsmusicstorebetasiteit_works/