08-21-2007, 06:36 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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MTV Closing URGE, Merging with Rhapsody
"The news was supposed to be announced at a press conference tomorrow at 11 AM in NYC, but WSJ jumped the gun on it (to be fair, no one cared about getting journalists under embargo). MTV Networks is closing its poorly received online music service Urge, and is merging it with RealNetworks Rhapsody music service."
This is...a bomb. There are few to no details about this, but on the surface it seems like a very bad thing for Microsoft's Zune marketplace service. Here's why: the Zune Marketplace is based off of URGE. By "based off of", I mean it's exactly the same thing, only with a different skin and different music promotions. The URGE back-end provides all the music for the Zune Marketplace. Now if this back-end is merged with Rhapsody, what are the odds that Rhapsody will leave it intact enough to be used by the Zune Marketplace?
There are many questions here: why didn't Microsoft just buy URGE themselves so they'd have a stable music platform for the Zune? The entire point in Microsoft doing the Zune was to control the experience, end to end, and try to come up with something comparable to the iPod, and certainly better than the chaos that was PlaysForsure with it's myriad of devices and music services. I doubt Microsoft is making much, if anything, off their Zune Marketplace music sales with URGE acting as the middleman between them and the music studios.
We have to remember that while Rhapsody eventually was a PlaysForSure music partner, when Microsoft announced that the Zune wasn't PlaysForSure, we saw Rhapsody and Sandisk join together and make a lot of noise about their music+device partnership. It's safe to say that a lot of people in the PlaysForSure industry were a little upset about the Microsoft Zune and what it meant for their businesses.
I'd find it hard to believe that Microsoft wasn't aware of this in advance, but you never know - my hope is that they've worked out a deal with Rhapsody to keep the URGE catalog and future releases inside the Zune marketplace, but unless Rhapsody has a strong financial incentive to do so, why would they continue to work with the Zune? I've emailed my Microsoft contact to ask for a response to this story - I'll post a reply when I receive it.
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08-21-2007, 08:31 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 3
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Since when is URGE the back end for Zune Marketplace? Granted, they look very very similar on the surface, but they don't share the same DRM so how can it be the exact same content? I have to respectfully disagree with that statement. I don't think this merger has any impact on the Zune Marketplace. ZM is a ground-zero project with no ties to anything that came before it.
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08-21-2007, 09:12 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 67
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You have to admit that the user experience between Urge and Zune Marketplace are eerily similar. I mean, I've been using Urge since it launched (love it!) and when I first launched the ZM I immediately blinked and said "Whoa... this is the same thing."
But it's not. However it's clear that Microsoft clearly leveraged off of the work that was done on Zune.
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08-21-2007, 09:19 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 7
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If I was to guess I would say Microsoft developed the URGE backend and licensed it to MTV. Zune just happens to use a similar, however, I would guess highly customized version of that same backend. I doubt this has any impact on Zune or the Marketplace.
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08-21-2007, 09:28 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 67
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Good points but we're all just speculating on that. They'll probably never admit the chain of events that led to the Urge/Zune separation.
Now we just wait and see what Microsoft says about Urge going away. Frankly, I want the hole filled and note merely paved over like a pothole.
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08-21-2007, 09:58 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kevo777
Since when is URGE the back end for Zune Marketplace?
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Umm...since it was first launched?  When we saw the Zune Marketplace we all knew they had just licensed the URGE library and re-skinned it. It's the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevo777
ZM is a ground-zero project with no ties to anything that came before it.
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That's just not the case, sorry. 
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08-21-2007, 09:59 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 94
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Rhapsody is doing a better job building partnerships
- Stream Rhapsody content to Tivo
- Stream Rhapsody content to Sonos
- Deviced built by SanDisk
- Merge Urge music store and gaining MTV marketing
Microsoft is doing something wrong!
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08-21-2007, 10:01 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShahnHogan
If I was to guess I would say Microsoft developed the URGE backend and licensed it to MTV.
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Hrm. I always thought it was the reverse - Microsoft licensed the URGE back-end and catalog...the whole thing...for Zune Marketplace. Remember URGE was out, what, at least a year before the Zune was. Why would Microsoft put all that effort into developing a service they weren't going to use? URGE was out long before the Zune was even a white-board project (January 2006).
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08-21-2007, 10:06 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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I should add that I HOPE nothing changed with the Zune marketplace and the sale of URGE is something that they've been planning for over the past six months...
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08-22-2007, 12:03 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 26
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It's new music release Tuesday, and no updates to Zune Marketplace. That has me worried.
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