Microhoo?!

While music is probably the last of their considerations in this rumored deal, it would certainly change the landscape.

BILL'S HARD DRIVE By PETER LAURIA and ZACHERY KOUWE - Business - New York Post Online Edition:
May 4, 2007 -- "Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned.

While Microsoft and Yahoo! have held informal deal talks over the years, sources say the latest approach signals an urgency on Microsoft's part that has up until now been lacking.

The new approach follows an offer Microsoft made to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago, sources said. But Yahoo! spurned the advances of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Wall Street sources put a roughly $50 billion price tag on Yahoo!. "

If this ever happened think of the mess of trying to reconcile all of the various music groups and products. Just off the top of my head, here is what I can think of that each would bring into a merger/acquistion:

• Yahoo Music Jukebox(media player)
• MusicMatch (whatever is left of it)
• Yahoo Music Unlimited (subscription service)
• Webjay (playlisting)
• Yahoo Launhcast (streaming radio)
• MSN Radio (powered by Pandora)
• MSN Music
• Zune Player (media player)
• Zune Hardware
• Xbox360 (as media center extender)
• Windows Media Player (Windows and Mobile)
• Windows Media DRM
• PlaysforSure Partners (both subscription service providers like Napster and device manufacturers)

There are probablly virutally dozens of other groups and products that I'm overlooking right now, but what a shakeout that would be. If that happens, then Rhapsody and Napster need to give each other a call and start making wedding plans. Rhapster? Napsody?

Real should buy MusicGremlin

Someone asked me the other day what I thought of MusicGremlin. Fact is, I think they've got a pretty killer little wifi media player grafted on to a fairly standard MusicNet-powered service. The devices does everything that Zune wants to do - but doesn't yet. A little company like MusicGremlin is never going to be able to compete on the same marketing scale as Apple, Microsoft or even Napster. Which is sad because I hate to see good products and services wither on the vine.

So, Real should take the cash from $700million dollar settlement from Microsoft and acquire the little company with the Zune-killer. Wouldn't that be sweet revenge for Real? Use Microsoft's money and MSN's ad placements (part of the settlement) to buy the device that does well the one thing Zune gets most hammered for.... direct-to-device dowloads and device-to-device sharing. They could also totally abandon Windows Media DRM (Plays For Sure) in favor of their own (like they have done with SanDisk).

Real could then subsidize the hardware when users commits to a year or more of Rhapsody-to-Go. I'm sure I'm not saying anything that others haven't said (or may be considering for all I know). But as a consumer, I'd buy it.

Tags: real+musicgremlin+rhapsody