Microsoft's Music Store Launch Expected Thursday

[Brad Isaac]

Saterday, I wrote about how much I am enjoying the new RealPlayer store concept and the fact that you can play purchased songs from the store on your Pocket PC, including the Storage cards you are using. According to CNet News.com, Microsoft will be launching their Store on Thursday of this week. They will obviously be competing with both Apple's iTunes and the new RealPlayer format. But the big question is will the songs play on Pocket PC
"People familiar with the company's plans say the MSN Music song store will have Web-based components, but will also depend heavily on its role inside the Media Player software. (That spot will be shared with other services, such as Napster, that use the Windows Media format to distribute their songs.) The store will offer 99-cent downloads for now, leaving the monthly subscription model to its other partners. Ultimately, it will offer some additional features, such as the ability for customers to chat with each other.
"The simple fact is we believe in both advertising revenues and e-commerce revenues," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in an interview with CNET News.com last week. "And so as you get people online comfortable with spending money...there will be companies that get to critical mass in terms of having those customer relationships and doing e-commerce." "