THE UPSHOT:
MusicNet On AOL's functionality is a categorical failure within the current music subscription market, but whether it will succeed as a business is beyond prediction. AOL has long lived by the formula that equates features with complexity, and assumes that complexity is not what AOL subscribers want. Accordingly, MusicNet On AOL is astonishingly feature-poor. The client compares badly with versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0 of Pressplay, and all versions of Rhapsody. In fact, comparisons of client functionality are embarrassing to those services, which reside in a different realm than this clunker. Whereas all three high-profile services suffer from value shortcomings, Pressplay and Rhapsody valiantly attempt to lure customers through addictively fun interfaces. They make finding new music a pleasure, while MusicNet On AOL essentially prevents discovery. As to the industry's current crop of advanced features, such as playlist sharing and targeted station building, MusicNet On AOL's development curve puts it years behind the times.

None of this is particularly surprising. Keeping cusomers mired in the past is an AOL tradition, and delivering hassle-rich consumer products is a RealNetworks tradition. The danger here is that MusicNet On AOL might succeed, and gain significant traction among AOL masses. In that eventuality, the more progressive work of Pressplay and Rhapsody could be stunted as a second-rate feature set establishes a template for success.

Whatever happens within the AOL firewall, reasonably aware online music consumers will stay far, far away from MusicNet On AOL, which follows in its parent's stumbling footsteps with this extremely poor release. Ouch.