Friday, February 27, 2004

Microsoft to Save Napster to Save WMA "In the battle over digital music, Microsoft may be forced to play kingmaker - or else be reduced to a pawn. There are dozens of online music stores that back Microsoft's digital format, but they may be too fragmented to successfully dent the lead of Apple's iTunes software, analysts said. So Microsoft has been quietly shifting some of its marketing muscle to back a few of the rival stores - particularly Napster," Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post. There are a dozen online music stores supporting the .wma format, but they command only about 30 percent total market share, according to estimates from Nielsen SoundScan," Lynch reports. Microsoft now links to half a dozen music stores on its Web page, but has given prominent placement to Napster on its Media Center personal computers. Also, Napster is one of only two companies to have a branded version of Microsoft's digital-music player software. 9:31:17 PM   comments[]

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