MSN Messenger Gets Music Integration

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/MSN_Messenger_Gets_Music_Integration/1108085141' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/MSN_Messenger_Gets_Music_Integration/1108085141</a><br /><br /></div><i>"BetaNews has learned that the latest beta builds of MSN Messenger 7 have begun exhibiting signs that Microsoft plans to integrate its music properties into the software. Beta build 604 implements a feature that enables users to jam a playlist of the songs that they are listening to within their personal message. But Microsoft is now singing a different tune on the final release date. The playlist feature is borrowed from Microsoft's ThreeDegrees test bed, which already offers steaming media playlists. It is presumed that songs in a user's playlist will be linked to the MSN Music store as Microsoft continues its attempts to position itself against rivals."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/msn_messenger_logo.jpg" /> <br /><br />Of course AOL and Yahoo! could do this really easy too.

[OSUKid7]

Nice feature, but why aren't people demanding universal standards for IM? :x

[Darius Wey]

Nice feature, but why aren't people demanding universal standards for IM? :x

The idea has come and gone (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2000/Jul00/IMUnifiedPr.asp) - it never really took off. But in theory, somewhat unified IM standards exist, but aren't typically used by the general consumer. So for now, we'll just have to accept the fact that there is more than one standard.