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- msjgriffiths, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Let me take a less negative view of this, and perhaps indulge in a tad of speculative history...
Somewhere over a year ago, Microsoft wanted to make a subscription music plan. Y'know, copying Yahoo!'s new effort at doing the same. They gave up, however, because there's this rather clever little section in all the contracts subscription music companies signed. It states that if, at any time in the future, another company popped up and offered a subscription music plan - except offered to pay the music companies more per suscriber - the price increase would automatically increase across ALL subscription music companies.
That's like living with a axe blade overyour head, all the time. You're in permanent fear of going from black to red ink in the space of a week.
At around the same time, MTV took a greater interest in the online space. They audience spend a huge amount of time online, and are often passionate (or at least informed) about music. Sure, they download it for free. But they're still there.
Microsoft and MTV "teamed up." Instead of offering a Microsoft music subscription service in Windows Media Player 11, they'd offer a MTV one. Oh, and Microsoft would "help" with the technology... no need to get the poor MTV employees confused.
MTV happens to be in an excellent position to offer a music service. To date, the ONLY music company offering downloads has been Virgin Records. And that's, like, Ruchard Branson, dude - he's usually ahead of the curve.
See, MTV is a media company. They make their money off of music, videos, and entertainment. They have 3 exceedingly popular TV channels. They're not a technology company. And they're not a startup (.e. OUTSIDER) to Hollywood and the media industry. They have a legion of contacts, contracts, existing business models, revenue streams, etc.
MTV doesn't have to make (much) money off of URGE for it to be succesful.
They can cross-promote. Do people not know about URGE? A media blitz on MTV, MTV2, and VH1 will have every High Schooler and College kid know about it in the space of a month. MTV Networks already devotes a lot of airtime to their own media. They can make URGE an extension of their traditional media empire. Watch a music video by 50 Cent on MTV? Hop onto URGE and watch an exclusive interview with 50 Cent about making the video. Want to watch an uncensored version of their show? Click a buttonand it's yours.
Oh, don't worry. The cost will be added to your bill at the end of the month.
______
Now, in terms of interface/etc, URGE is very slick. I'm testing it on WMP11 (which is also rather nice). WMP11 now has some of the nice features that iTunes has had for... well, forever. URGE poses a very nice threat to iTunes, though it's not quite "there" yet in terms of features, slickness, etc. But I bet it'll get there very quickly.
Do I think URGE will get anywhere? Yes, I do. I think it'll do very well. - rmflagg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9"MTV is enormously powerful, and obviously has their finger on the pulse of the youth. Why would it not go far?"
Because if URGE is not compatible with iPods, then they really DON'T have their finger on the pulse of the youth. If you don't work with the most popular portable music device, you are just kidding yourself as to how popular you are going to be.
Just imagine being in "tech support" trying to answer the deluge of questions as to how get the music on their iPods. I'd rather scrub toilets.
MTV became "Tiger Beat TV" about 10 years ago and with that they pretty much stopped playing music. I grew up on MTV and when it came out, it opened my eyes to more music then I had imagined at the time. Since the first episode of "Remote Control" in the late 80's, the network has slowly declined to what it is today.("My Sweet Sixteen", anyone?)
On August 1st of this year, MTV will be 25 years old. I wonder if they will celebrate it or if they will ignore it seeing that they are NOT Music Television anymore. They started with "Video Killed The Radio Star" and now someone needs to write the song, "MTV Killed The Video Star." - teckjunkie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I'd like to be able to download old MTV shows live beavis and butthead, sifl & Olly, and daria. The Daria torrents are normally crap quality.
- rustyrobot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10i can hear teens everywhere saying...
"AWWW JEEZZZ, i can't get enough of them BLACK EYED PEAS. and the pussycat dolls, woo! don't get me started. THAT is wut i call music." - KillerX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Proprietary crap that will only run on unsecured Windows junk.
Just another mediocre music store that only runs on Windows allowing Microsoft to keep it's monopoly of ***** products moving forward. And with the help of it's Windows Butt Monkey Lemming Fan Dorks and throwing billions of dollars at it, it may take over second place in the legal music download market.
Look out Real and Napster, your days are numbered. Ha! Ha! - radixus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Too little, too late MTV. Waited too long to jump on this bandwagon!
- readme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Dead at birth.
- msjgriffiths, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The 10,000 or os (9,817 to be pedantic) hours of classical music are rather nice. :-)
There's a huge volume of music on URGE. A little light on, say, Children's - under a thousand hours! - but I'm not complaining. - Mesach, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The problem with the Mtv Service will be that they will offer the videos and music, but eventually they will lose the music and start offering made for Mtv soap operas and shows instead of music.
Anyone check out Mtv2 lately? what happened to the only music channel they promised? Dont get me wrong, I love Wonder Showzen, but shouldn't it be on regular Mtv, and music be played in its place on Mtv2? - bradspry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Being built into every copy of Windows gives it an upper hand, regardless of merits. I expect hooks in IE for this next. Something like search engine results for music automagically hooking into the store.
- rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think if you read between the lines and look at the company involved (Viacom), this deal is more about video than it is about music. Music is the commodity, video is the real differentiator and what Viacom wants to sell.
- pr3z00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4To fully understand what is going on you have to think outside the box. It's like this: Microsoft has long been criticized for not being the an innovative company.
1. They were just celebrating their victory after crushing Netscape when EBay and Yahoo were just about coming. At the same time bigwigs and Fat cats in Microsoft had a long term vision of PC and Internet monopoly thus the put on the brakes. >> Verdict: Ignorance.
2. They were too busy patching up windows 2000 when Google started indexing the web. >> Verdict: Ignorance.
3. They were too busy tweaking windows 2000 and re-branding it as XP when Google started disrupting the industry. >> Verdict: Ignorance.
3. They were too busy patching windows XP when Google dominated the Web search and found out how to use Ad-Sense to make money. >> Verdict: Ignorance.
4. When Apple came along with the IPOD they were still to busy patching windows XP. Although the tried to get into the media market by releasing the XBOX. >> Verdict: Ignorance.
Someone can write a better list of Microsoft's ignorance. but the point I'm trying to make is that Microsoft stopped being innovative long time. They have become lazy and only seem to react when they have been spanked, almost to bits. But the whole PC dynamics has seriously changed. The web is totally disruptive, competition is different and they are no more the domineering firm. It's a though call but I think they would fight this one out even if it means using more than half of their cash pile.
On MTV's case I don't know but these large firms are just waking up to a different business dynamics and could be in for a surprise.
Competition is good but the competing firms have to understand the consumer. - IQ70, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I cannot understand what is it that people do not like? iTunes sales are so little compared to the total music sales.
Just the tip of the iceberg. Why would you not want competition? Competition is good.
MTV has a huge fan following even now and that is the demographics the mp3 players cater too.
MTV also has a fan following among the baby boomers who grew up on the old MTV.
iPods might be good but mp3 players are not the only devices which can playback music.
Think about phones, pdas, laptops, desktops, cars. Everything in the next 10 years will be able to playback digital music.
And one more thing, burying posts which do not say "eh suxors, itunes rules" is really dumb.
Apple did not pay you to buy that mouse. - saska, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5While it won't knock iTunes out of dominance, it's their extensive catalog of live and exclusive performances that is the key to their potential success.
- rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Exclusive content I would imagine. More into video than music, but as Apple branches out in that direction, they will find new competitors.
MTV, Viacom, CBS, Paramount, CBS Radio, (many more) - these are all the same conglomerate and I am sure they are not happy about having to go through Apple in order to distribute their content.
Toss in Microsoft and their media player. Maybe this service would also be featured on the Xbox 360 live service? I could see some other music companies jumping on the band wagon in order to take away some of Apple's momentum. - Menel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4No mention of quality. If it has a quality selection system like alltunes does, I might switch.
$9.95 sounds good, pay for a few months subscription and you can download a pretty extensive music library for yourself. I'd consider that.
But then the next comment, paying 14.95 a month to be able to transfer to a portable music player? I would assume since this is tied with Microsoft that it is the wma format. So shouldn't any player that supports wma work? Or is it just loaded with DRM *****? If so I think I would have to pass and stick with better alternatives. Until they can distribute simple, hassle free, common mp3 files that are good quality, 160 or better, or selectable like allTunes. Nothing is going to be massively popular. - Aslan72, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Only two ways this will knock out dominance of itunes: Cheaper music and better quality...otherwise, just hang it up...
- Thorpe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Who thinks this will go far?
- cambrown99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Stephen Colbert on Urge:
"This Wednesday, MTV is launching URGE, an online site to compete with iTunes. All you need to know: the site will sell music for only a half hour a day, and the rest will be crap programs for slow teens." - Hoopkidups, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4What I want to know is, how is this service better than already established music stores like iTunes?
- rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The problem with status symbols though is that they are fads. What is cool this year, will be old and stale by next year.
Fairplay of course is not part of that iPod status symbol though and will have all those cool people screaming in pain once they realize they have to throw away all their downloads in order to swtich to the next cool thing. - pillfred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2why mod his statement down, never mind i know why.
anyhow good point they have done all sorts of ***** over the years that could potentially be sold. I am more interested in the videos more so than the music. There is all kinds of cool videos from back in the day that i would love see again. - Deuterium, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5What does MTV have to do with music? When did they get involved with music?
- replica, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Menel
It is 192 Kbps, 44 KHz stereo 2-pass CBR - Paktu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"For years, MTV Networks Inc. sat on the sidelines while Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and others racked up sales of music downloads."
Apple is the only one to have made money on music downloads, and most of the real money is from hardware sales (iPods). Real has lost millions on music downloads. Napster has lost hundreds of millions. What, exactly, is MTV bringing to the table that sets them apart? - fjvwing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Mesach: actually, they do have an all-music channel on cable, called MTV Hits (MTV-H). It barely has commercials, even. I have found it in Boston and LA on the cable system. Seems to be a 6 hour programming block that gets repeated.
- skellener, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2> Only two ways this will knock out dominance of itunes: Cheaper music and better quality...otherwise,
> just hang it up...
You forgot NO DRM and ease of use. - dayquil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2MTV is enormously powerful, and obviously has their finger on the pulse of the youth. Why would it not go far?
I worry that MTV's weight in the matter could end up dictating format adoption and so on. $14.95 for the ability to transfer to "over 100 compatible players" sounds more reasonable than some plans, but incompatibility with the iPod is very meaningful: 1) They think people don't need to own their music permanently (this is a rather questionable move; there is precedent, but not by especially successful competitors), and 2) they seriously believe they can take on iTunes. I don't know that I doubt it. - VipeNess, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i didnt know mtv did music... i dont even watch them anymore, cuz all they do is hype stupid artists and no real talent!
- pr1mus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Windows Media Player 11 is having it install when you select the normal install mode. I played around with it a bit. The main page still won't load, but I was able to stream a few videos. It is much faster than Yahoo's Launch.
- majoogybobber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2RealNetworks racked up sales for downloads? Really?
- northerncomfort, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Sorry, but teens already see the iPod as the must-have status-symbol product. Therefore, this service is already going to be "totally not cool" to the MTV-crowd.
- jpfinch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yeah, it's called Rhapsody, they have around 2.5 million subscribers.
- rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1More proof that Apple iTunes is not a monopoly: just the best damn music app period™.
- pr3z00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Microsoft's core business used to be OS. But you would agree with me that when Scot McNealy said "the network is the computer" he might eventually be on to something. The OS industry has matured, the industry is in decline even Microsoft have realized this trend.
- fani, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3More like, BEG.
Thats what MTV is doing - begging people to go to its site to buy music and not to iTunes. - rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It is DRM protected and not playable on the majority of portable music players out there (iPods). Basically it is the same as iTunes with an incompatible format - it will be hard for them to get it off the ground. If it is as easy to use as iTunes is, it might have a chance at being more than a failure. For me at least, unless I can convert the music into MP3 or some other DRM-less format so that I can use it on whatever device I want, forget about it.
- Zzzzz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3all I will ask is WHY?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1News articles that will follow this one...
Microsoft releases Urge to the public, offers free downloads!!
MTV's Urge, Apple look out!!
Urge isn't that urgent.
Has Microsoft abandoned urge like IE6?
What ever happened to "My MTV"? - maxhead, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The irony-- cool artists wear iPods in their MTV videos...which will be playing on MTV's URGE system which is competing with iTunes/iPod. Heh. Rock on, Apple.
- dkordik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1People! URGE is just another MusicNet reseller. Like Virgin Digital, Musicmatch, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and many other music subscription services that you are familiar with. The only thing that differs among them is marketing and pricing, slightly.
- tenaciousD91, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What's the point of getting MTV music store we already have napster and itunes. MTV copies almost everyone else
- rodzilla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1My god!! Urge is ugly as ass
- rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1pr3z00, maybe you didn't know this, but Microsoft's core business is Operating Systems and Application Software. If they don't spend the majority of their time on these products, then they are going to be in trouble. This may not seem "innovative" and cool, but it is actually vital for the company to continue to maintain and evolve those products.
- rileyjt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1>>
iTunes sales are so little compared to the total music sales.
>>
Total music sales are stagnant or shrinking these days. iTunes sales are skyrocketing. Take the trends from the past 5 years and multiply them out 10 years into the future. The possibilities here have a lot of people shaking in their boots. - sdposse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wonder if MTV will eventually pull their shows off iTMS (i.e. The Guantlet, Laguna Beach, The Andy Milonakis Show) . Conflict of interest?
- weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1hasnt it occurred to anyone that the 5% of early adopters who buy music online probably corresponds quite a bit to MTV's core audience anyway? I definitely think more teens and twentysomethings have iPods than any other age group.
- fugitivALiEN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Toffler said "Only 5 percent of music sales happen digitally, Hopefully, through the TV channels we have and the dot-com sites ... we can educate people about the virtues of subscriptions. It's not about selling a million singles."
iTunes was second only to Sam Goody an actual Brick and Mortar. I wouldn't say digital music is only 5% maybe he's going off of old press releases when they should have tried launching a digital music store. The only thing this has going of it is that it's being helped by Microsoft... but the fact that it's subscription based... Hi guys, let me introduce you two... Urge, Napster, Napster, Urge... This is a great book... you should be to Chapter 11 in no time...=/ - swiftness, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2People don't like that this is a crappy service based on an unsuccessful business model. They are relying on their branding to push them above their competitors rather than creating a superior service. It's a waste of time for consumers if it fails and it's a step back words for consumers if it succeeds.
- Sockman109, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"The tie-in to MTV should also help URGE sell consumers on the upside of subscription services better than others have to date, said analyst Phil Leigh with Inside Digital Media."
This basically says that without the "MTV" name attached to it, nobody would be interested. Why do they think people don't like subscription services? It's because you never actually own a copy of the song - you can only listen as long as you're paying for the service. Even with iTunes, where you're still stuck in the vice of DRM, you have an actual file of the song on your hard drive that isn't going to go away when the month is up. And the kicker is this - we don't get to choose what music we want. No, that's been decided for us by the gods at the record companies using their mighty payola. (http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/tvstations/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002501367)
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