MTV’s Urge faces significant challenges
ø
MTV and Microsoft’s annoucement today on its new music service, Urge, provides an interesting competitor to those in the music world, specifically Apple’s iTunes and other Internet services such as Napster and Real Network’s Rhapsody. The service will allow users to download songs from its 2 million song catalog, similar to how iTunes operates, at 99 cents per song. A difference with Urge is a two-part subscription service that allows users to listen to any of their 2 million songs as well as some download/copy capabilities.
The big issue for Urge is distribution to actual music devices. Since the service is not compatiable with iPod or Mac products, it is certainly starting at a key disadvantage. Even with two big branded players in MTV and Microsoft, it’s unlikely that they will make a big dent in the market, unless they overcome this compatiability issue.
