MSN launched its Radio Plus service Monday night:
- Radio Plus marks a significant departure for MSN in that it is the first entertainment content to get a paid version. That's an indication of things to come, according to Microsoft.
"We look at it as a first step in a much broader strategy that we hope to deliver in time," said Lisa Gurry, Microsoft's group product manager for MSN. "I can't go into details, but this is the first of an array of offerings that we hope to deliver in the subscription space--not just in entertainment, but across the board there will be more subscription services. This is an example of how we're going to deliver on that vision."
For $29.99 per year, MSN Radio Plus subscribers will be able to hear content without interstitial advertisements. Currently, listeners see a banner ad for every song they hear and an audio advertisement after every sixth song. MSN estimated that on average its paying listeners will listen five times longer each session than free listeners.
Paying listeners will also be able to search for different kinds of music based on criteria such as tempo, genre, artist and other favorites. That capability derives from technology Microsoft purchased in September 2000 with its acquisition of Internet music start-up MongoMusic.
A final bonus for paying listeners is technology that eliminates the buffering delay that usually precedes streamed audio content.
....Microsoft's competitors in paid radio include RealNetworks' RealOne RadioPass, which costs $5.99 per month; Yahoo's Launchcast Plus, offered at $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year; MusicMatch's Listen.com's Rhapsody Radio Plus, $4.95 per month or $9.95 per quarter. RealNetworks late last month agreed to buy Listen.com for $36 million.
In the market for online radio, Microsoft competes with itself, too--its Windows Media Player has a radio tuner that offers content through relationships with ad-supported, third-party radio sites.
Another competitor, MusicMatch, on Tuesday is launching Version 8 of its MusicMatch MX radio service and jukebox.
According to MusicMatch, the experiment of paid radio subscriptions has proven successful. The company, which launched its subscription service in June 2001, counts more than 138,000 active paying subscribers and nearly 2 million listeners to its free radio service.
"From the business model perspective, we've made it work well," said Christopher Allen, MusicMatch's senior vice president of marketing and strategic planning. "We've been competing with Microsoft for quite some time, and they have nowhere near the depth of personalization technology that we have." [CNET]
So there.
Article comments
1 - Aaron
Thank you so much for covering this. I was a RadioPass subscriber for the last few months and it has it good points, but the network is not stable at all. I did not realize that MusicMatch was available to Canadians -- website says no, but I found MusicMatch.ca where Bell Canada offers this service. I'll buy something via Blogcritics and/or tip you as soon as I can. Classical.com has a great service as well, hope more people discover it.
2 - Eric Olsen
very glad it was helpful, Aaron.
3 - Aaron
Sorry that I can't comment on Radio Plus since I'm not American, but I am very pleased with MusicMatch's sound and options -- skipping, Artist on Demand, etc. (guess Rhapsody is the same kind of deal, maybe Real Networks will improve the stability of RadioPass and/or just focus on their MusicPass, again for Americans only)
I only have 128 MB of RAM and MusicMatch eats up a lot of my memory -- can't surf with extreme speed like I usually can -- so I'll mostly play it when I'm lying down or reading non-Internet content. I'll use RadioPass for when I'm surfing, and close to it, for when I need to change channels.