Friday, June 10, 2005

Microsoft planning music subscription service | CNET News.com

Microsoft planning music subscription service CNET News.com: "The tentative features of the new service--which is still under development--include advanced community aspects and playlist-sharing. But sources say Microsoft is also considering a more direct attack on Apple, seeking rights from copyright holders to give subscribers a new, Microsoft-formatted version of any song they've purchased from the iTunes store so those songs can be played on devices other than an iPod. "

The story goes on to say..."the iTunes replacement plan would require agreements from multiple copyright holders, and may not come to pass, however." Maybe I'm missing something, but this should be simple... scan the user's existing library and match (either via metadata or audio fingerprint) to the corresponding Windows Media DRM'd track on their service and download it. Sure the users ends up with two copies of the same track, one for the iPod and one that works on everything else, but that's the beauty of a subscription service... you can download whatever you want.

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