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MusicNet does Windows (Media)
June 13, 2003
Welcome to TNL.net. If you like this content, you may consider subscribing to the RSS feed.It looks like another point is scored by Microsoft, as MusicNet agrees to support Windows Media 9 in its service. Most interesting in this is the fact that AOL and Real Networks are part owners of MusicNet. Is this the first sign of the AOL/Microsoft partnership working out? And what does it mean for Real Networks’ own proprietary format? It seems the market for digital media is moving very rapidly these days and it all seems to be working out in Microsoft’s favor.
The other question in this is what it means for MP3, a format that has now been widely adopted by a number of electronics manufacturers (there are a lot of MP3 players out there but not so many WM9 ones). Is the format going to disappear much more quickly over time?
Last but not least, it seems that Microsoft is busy preparing for a battle with Apple, which recently introduced its music store, using a format called AAC. Considering that Apple plans to introduce a version of their store for the Windows platform later on this year, there might be some interesting competition over dominant format in the future.
Based on the momentum it’s gaining, and the fact that it has an established monopoly on the desktop, I am placing my bets on Microsoft winning this fight. The only question is how long it will take and whether it will take force Apple to adopt Microsoft’s technology in the future. This would be a substantial step back for Apple, which is promoting Quicktime as a competing platform.
