Can Microsoft Spank the iPod?
Published April 04, 2004
In July Microsoft will offer technology - code named "Janus" (this article will now self-destruct) - that will bring all-you-can-eat digital music service songs to portable players:
- Janus would add a hacker-resistant clock to portable music players for files encoded in Microsoft's proprietary Windows Media Audio format. That in turn would help let subscription services such as Napster put rented tracks on portable devices--something that's not currently allowed. Fans of portable players could then pay as little as $10 a month for ongoing access to hundreds of thousands of songs, instead of buying song downloads one at a time for about a dollar apiece.
Few online music subscription plans have enjoyed great success to date, but some music company executives said they believe Janus will make renting music more attractive to consumers and eventually give a la carte download services such as Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store a run for their money.
Device makers, too, see the software as a way to take on Apple and its industry-leading iPod player, which for now offers no support for rented music. Anticipating the Janus release, MP3 player makers including Samsung have already begun advertising support for the technology in a handful of high-end products.
"To us, Janus finally provides the platform on which we can build a new type of experience for the consumer," said Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital, the British conglomerate's new online-music division. "We believe this is it. This is what consumers are going to want. We want to be big participant in changing consumers' attitude towards what music really is."
....Although Microsoft plans to get into the retail music market, its primary ambition is to be a technology provider and ultimately make its software the de facto industry standard for encoding and playing back digital media files--goals toward which the company could take a big step if subscription services based on Janus catch on.
....Part of the trouble with subscription services to date is that subscribers typically haven't been able to transfer the millions of files available to them to their portable music players. Record labels have largely required that subscription content "time out," or be made unplayable if a subscriber stops paying, and MP3 players haven't had the capability to support that feature.
That's where Janus comes in. The technology would add a "secure clock" to Microsoft's Windows Digital Rights Management technology, which would let an MP3 player tell whether a particular file was past its expiration date. [CNET]
- Can Microsoft Spank the iPod?
- Published: April 04, 2004
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Sci/Tech: Software, Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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and what's the story on the 'time-out' stuff? so when you stop paying, the file becomes unplayable, both on your PC and porta-mp3 device? will the file allow itself to be burned to cd? Eric, O Microsoft Ambassador, please enlighten me.
As I understand it, you wo't be able to (legitimately) burn it to CD, but you will be able to load it to compatible players (referred to as "MP3" players, but technically it's the Windows format), but the songs will self-destruct if and when you discontinue the service, so it really is "renting."
This isn't the final answer that some kind of blanket license would be that comes without restrictions of any kind, but it is a step in the right direction to have access to a vast catalog for a low price, and to be able to take it away from the computer.
Please remember, however: I am a technical nincompoop.
As long as you've got an analogue line-out and a line-in on your sound card there's no security,.
Yes yes, loss of quality.
99% of the population won't be able to hear the difference.
I took a guess at how this proposed "clock" would function (see trackback). When files are transferred to the device they are ultimately going to carry the DRM licensing and there will still be a need to sync up and renew the license to a PC that has internet connection (or the device itself, if it is internet capable).
For me, choosing which online music provider (and I've tried many of them) boils down to selection. To date, Rhapsody has the best selection for streaming music, and hence the reason I've been a subscriber for over six months now. Napster has more freedom than Rhapsody, but the selection isn't there.
Eric, I've been using a service like this for some time: It's called radio, and it's free!
Oh, wait, you mean you want no commercials? Then it's called XM or Sirius satellite radio.
Yeah, yeah, you can pick and choose what to play. Somehow I don't see this as worth it relative to free radio. But maybe I just live in an area with decent radio stations.
Phillip - we had this discussion, what, six months ago? :) Traditional radio and satellite radio don't compare to the BYOM (bring your own music) model. If and when users can program satellite radio stations of their own, then there could be a viable comparison.
This isn't a knock on Satellite radio, though, because I'm sure there are some great stations and radio programming by others can open up new avenues of music one might not otherwise explore.
But, IMHO, the comparison is apples and oranges.
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The big problem is that I don't think M$ can execute it (unless they are buying a company which has actually accomplished this) since they have a really bad track record with media and networking -- they just don't get it and trying to wrap everything up in a DRM straightjacket isn't what the market wants.
Trying to sell what people don't want to buy isn't their strong suit, telling them what they will buy, or else, is more where they're at.