The Baffling World of Microsoft Music

Can anybody on planet Earth explain Microsoft’s music strategy?

“I am a cipher wrapped in an enigma smothered in a secret sauce.” - Jimmy James

Windows Media Player version 11 is actually — surprisingly — a decent application. Upon opening Media Player, you’ll notice an integrated music service called Urge. Urge has a decent music selection and offers an unlimited download subscription option as well as an iTunes-like music purchase option.

What about Zune?

But why Urge? Microsoft, unbelievably, is its own competitor. Zune is not integrated into Media Player, and its DRM is not compatible. Zune requires a separate download. Vista comes bundled with something called “Sync Center” that is deeply integrated with Windows Media Player. I don’t know if this works with Zune software.

This is just weird.

It Gets Worse

News flash: Urge is now dead. OK…Mr. Obvious thinks “now they’ll consolidate under a single brand.” Nope. Urge is merging with Rhapsody, which is NOT integrated into Windows Media Player. Instead, you have to download and install the proprietary Rhapsody client software. Here’s what it looks like:

Rhapsody crashes constantly. And (as I found) if you leave the “auto login” checkbox checked, it won’t auto-login. Worse, you have to exit, go to IE, clear ALL browser caches, and then restart. Sometimes several times. If you are lucky you can play a few songs, but eventually it kicks you out.

Rhapsody sucks ass.

If you downloaded a library of songs from Urge, you can allegedly transfer them to Rhapsody. It turns out you *can* import the songs, but after a few days or weeks the DRM expires and bricks the music. You have to re-download everything at this point.

This assumes the songs are even available. I’ve found that Rhapsody appears to offer LESS music than Urge. Almost every album appears to have partial content, with at least 2-3 songs missing:

Those are the best songs on the albums. The fillers are still available for monthly-subscription customers.

In their defense, these missing songs are available for MP3 purchase. Surprisingly, these are 256 Kbps DRM-free MP3, just like DRM-free MP3s from Amazon. (makes you wonder why there is SO MUCH BUZZ about Amazon’s MP3 downloads, when you can get the same thing from Rhapsody? Maybe if Rhapsody didn’t crash so often…)

In Summary…Please Explain

So back to the original question. Can ANYBODY offer a logical explanation for Microsoft’s music strategy? Allow me to summarize:

• There is no brand. Consumers are given a bewildering array of choices…Windows Media Player, Urge, Rhapsody, Zune…???
• Many choices are not integrated — at all — with Vista’s otherwise decent Media Player and Sync Center
• Software like Rhapsody crashes and is complex to configure
• Many songs simply are not available, despite other parts of the album being available
• Rhapsody is part of the new breed of DRM-free MP3 providers, just like Amazon, but nobody’s really talking about that. Surely that should be a prominent part of Microsoft’s marketing?

Here is my theory. I don’t think they are stupid, nor do I think they are intentionally trying to fail. I think this is mostly a case of a huge corporation that is dominated by special interest groups, bureaucracy, and committees. Trying to please everybody leads to wishy-washy shit that inspires nobody.

Microsoft needs a dictator.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Microsoft. You can skip to the end and leave a response.