Microsoft (MS) and MTV (Music Television – you remember when they used to actually play music on Music Television, don’t you?) have teamed up to challenge Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS)/iPod team in the battle for online music sales. The MS/MTV offering is called Urge.

Due to the sheer weight of Microsoft and the cultural influenza, er, I mean, influence, of MTV, most industry analysts believe that Urge will be the first serious contender to try to wrest market share from the iTMS/iPod dynasty. Others postulate that Urge will instead trample the remaining non-iTMS, non-iPod also-ran music services like Napster, Rhapsody, and Fred’s On-Line Music Store and Bake Shop (OK, I made that one up) and take over the remaining 25 to 30% of the online music market.

Apple’s iTunes, iPod, and iTMS ecosystem is successful in part due to the seamless integration of each part of the triad. If you’re familiar with how Apple’s system works, you know just about everything you need to know about the fundamentals of Urge. Although it’ll be billed as such, Urge is not the long-awaited “iTunes for Windows users.” Why? Because there’s already iTunes for Windows and it and the iPod work wonderfully on Windows PCs. Rather, Urge is “iTunes for Windows Media users”. There’s a difference.

There are indeed three parts to the Urge ecosystem: Windows Media Player 11 (WMP 11), the MTV Urge online music store, and (at least in the launch phase) a portable media player from iRiver called “Clix”. We’ll cover each individually.

WMP 11 is a significant, “must-have” upgrade for Windows XP users, and is a free download from microsoft.com. It does pretty much everything iTunes does, resembles iTunes, and builds upon iTunes features.

And, just like the iTunes and iTunes Music Store model, access to the Urge music store is built into WMP 11, and even looks like the iTMS. As with the iTMS, you can buy individual songs for 99 cents, albums for 11 to 13 bucks, and listen to the music on up to five authorized computers. However, unlike the iTMS, Urge offers a subscription service.

Simply put, you pay a monthly fee and download as much music onto your computer or non-iPod personal digital music player as your hard drive/internet connection can handle. While this does give you access to a ton of music, if you ever stop paying your subscription fees all your downloaded music becomes unplayable. And, if you want to burn any of your subscription music onto a CD, you can’t do that until you pony up 99 cents more per song (which is the same as buying the song in the first place).

Urge offers two subscription plans. For $14.99/month (after a free 14-day trial) you get the “All Access to Go” plan that lets you place your subscription music on three computers and two portable devices. The $9.99 “All Access” plan doesn’t allow transfer to portable devices (if there’s a restriction, how can it be “All Access”?)

The Urge music store interface is still technically in “beta” phase. Developers say that support for Podcasts and video will come. All music downloaded from Urge is in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format and “protected” with Microsoft’s version of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software.

So, with the player and store in place you need a compelling portable media player to complete the triad. Although WMA-formatted Urge music is compatible with most “Plays for Sure” players, the ecosystem’s “featured” player is the iRiver “Clix”. Think of it as a thicker, heavier, squat, 2 GB, $200 iPod nano, with a bigger screen that can play video.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski