MSN Music will stop selling content after two years of competing with Apple’s digital online store, iTunes. Instead, MSN Music will redirect users to either the Zune Marketplace Web site or to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody site, from November 14.
Microsoft has now planned a make over for the MSN music site, by shifting focus to hosting live concerts and posting interviews with musicians and other music-related content. Moreover, MSN’s Radio service on the MSN Music site will also be made available, free of charge. Microsoft has also announced that users who have already bought content from MSN Music will still be able to use their songs, transfer them to compatible music players and burn them to CDs.
MSN’s music download service, which was launched in September 2004, could not withstand competition from iTunes, because the MSN service was never supported by the popular iPod. Even features such as the ability to download tracks onto hard drives and WMP compatible portable devices, it failed to face the competition.
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