Microsoft to Challenge Pandora, Last.fm Later This Month
Microsoft is planning on launching its own streaming music service by the end of July, Emma Barnett reported today in the UK Telegraph. A Microsoft exec told Barnett that the service would likely resemble Spotify, a popular European music startup that combines ad-supported free streaming music with a premium ad-free subscription option and the ability to purchase songs by download. A long list of glowing reviews for Spotify was well rounded-up by Jennifer Guevin at CNet early this year. We suspect there is some chance the service could be built on top of the technology of another music startup, Seeqpod.
Can Microsoft find the right balance of monetizing music without being over-bearing, enabling multi-platform use without being confusing and satisfying millions of mainstream users without being boring? Those seem to be the looming questions.
Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, told the Telegraph that the new music service could tie in to the company's XBox gaming and entertainment system and would leverage knowledge acquired through the Zune experience.
Could Seeqpod Be Under The Hood?
It's possible that the new project is being rolled out quickly because it's built on acquired technology. This Spring there was widespread speculation that Microsoft had acquired failed but awesome MP3 search engine Seeqpod. Seeqpod did a great job searching for media around the web and offered an API that developers liked quite a lot - but the company got slammed by repeated lawsuits. Seeqpod argued that it was only indexing media files that other people were posting, not posting them themselves. That kind of argument tends to hold up best when you are big enough for music companies to look the other way. Surely Microsoft wouldn't be so bold, would it?
Bale says the new Microsoft music service will compete based on scale and quality of product. If it can simply deliver more variety than Pandora or Last.fm do, that alone will make it a viable competitor for many users.
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What about Spotify? That's the hottest thing in Europe right now.
Posted by: Robert Scoble
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July 13, 2009 8:23 AM
MSN exec that talked about the forthcoming service said it is going to be like Spotify
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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July 13, 2009 8:24 AM
Yeah, I would much rather see a serious challenge from Microsoft, if they are targeting the "streaming music services"
Posted by: Josh Chandler
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July 13, 2009 8:24 AM
anything about the service being available via zune ?
Posted by: Kashif Khan
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July 13, 2009 8:26 AM
"... by the end of July" that seems rather soon and raises some interesting questions concerning Microsoft's announcement of bringing Last.FM to Xbox this fall.
Posted by: Roy Herrod
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July 13, 2009 8:27 AM
Roy, I guess it depends how much of commitment Microsoft realistically plans to make to the XBOX media solutions, I mean it's much more beneficial to hit an active market of growing services, then a small perhaps not really commericially viable space such as console gaming. I mean, when was the last time you thought about listening to music on the XBOX!
Posted by: Josh Chandler
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July 13, 2009 8:33 AM
Josh: I mean more along the lines of bringing this new service to the Xbox rather than integrating Last.FM, it would give their new service an initial potential userbase who would be exposed to it with much less marketing effort/cost (e.g. through the Xbox dashboard). I agree the main market will be desktop users but as they are planning on bring streaming music to the Xbox it'd make more sense to bring their own solution/product if they have one.
Posted by: Roy Herrod
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July 13, 2009 8:38 AM
Kinda sad for Pandora to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's an oncoming train.
I think Spotify is still in a very strong position. However, they need to raise more funding in this tough advertising climate, while at the same time grow their technology into different sectors, so that I can access my music from anywhere on any device.
In terms of Seeqpod Microsoft didnt acquire any of that service as all the Seeqpod assets were later sold in auction on Sedo, plus it was stated by the Seeqpod CEO that the Microsoft deal had fallen through.
I don't think, at this early stage, Microsoft have identified a way to compete with Spotify in Europe - I think their grip on the market is becoming too strong for that.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if they made their offering available in the US, as their capacity to deal with all the traffic that will head their way will be far greater than Spotify, which is of course still not available there yet.
I think this wil be their foot in the door, but initially I don't see how they can offer anything better than what Spotify is doing already.
I really don't see what Microsoft could add to these types of services. For me anyway. I use Last.fm pretty much exclusively now. Their library is very vast yet limited (lots of artists, but not every album/song). And they "scrobble" all my music listening stats.
I doubt they could or would match the "scrobbling" aspect, but I guess they could have a bigger library. That is a big "if" however.
Posted by: civ2boss.myopenid.com
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July 14, 2009 7:20 AM
I'm glad Microsoft is moving this direction. I just hope it gives Independent artist/labels such as myself the chance to be herd fairly amongst the major record labels.
If Microsoft could achieve that balance it will defiantly be ahead of the game.
Tye Banks
Tytanium Music
http://www.TyeBanks.com
Thanks for the info. I found it really useful.