MTV Closing URGE, Merging with Rhapsody

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.forbes.com/special_contributors/2007/08/20/mtv-music-urge-tech-cx_pco_0820paidcontent.html' target='_blank'>http://www.forbes.com/special_contributors/2007/08/20/mtv-music-urge-tech-cx_pco_0820paidcontent.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/MTV-URGE-cancelled.jpg" /><br /><br />This is...a bomb. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/special_contributors/2007/08/20/mtv-music-urge-tech-cx_pco_0820paidcontent.html">There are few to no details about this</a>, 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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[Jeremy Charette]

Wow. That was fast.

[priesmeyer]

I'm really concerned about this. A little about my legal-music history -- I subscribed to Pressplay (now Napster) then left for Yahoo Music. Somewhere in there I used Rhapsody until Real bought them. I despise Real. I liked Yahoo Music just fine but I really wanted a one Media Player application to rule them all solution. So when Urge came into existence integrated into WMP I made the switch. I mistakening thought that my eminent Zune purchase would benefit from that decision (we know that's now the case even though, as Jason mentioned, the Zune Marketplace is really just Urge stripped down so my other players don't work).

So, now where does this leave me and the others like me? I DISlike having to use multiple programs to listen to music and discover/purchase music and sync up my devices. I want WMP11 to do that for me.

What will happen? Will something fill that void (a subscription service integrated into WMP). Remember, MusicMatch used to do that (oh yeah, I used to subscribe to them as well) but since Yahoo took them over they've left the WMP camp and are exclusively Yahoo.

MSN Music was great but they're sending all of their traffic to Real Rhapsody.

[EDIT: "great" is probably not the right word choice. I had some license issues a few years ago so there were headaches but I think the whole legal music realm has grown up quite a bit now.] [Oh, and iTunes is NOT an option for me.]

Oh the humanity!

[sundown]

From a "trees" perspective, the thing that worries me is that the market at large, e.g. non-geeks, will be further confused and adoption of the technology will slow. Digital music shouldn't require someone to be or force them to become a geek just to be able to play it. It should be as simple as - you buy it, transfer it to your device and then play it. If only geeks can figure it out, the prices will be higher and there may not be enough motivation for labels to continue allowing/providing music downloads. Maybe this is what they want. If not, just how do we go about saving them from themselves?

[priesmeyer]

How timely- I just got an email from Urge on the important news concerning my account.

:cry:

It links me to this FAQ: http://www.urge.com/index.jhtml

[randalllewis]

Oh, great. When MSN Music died, I had lots of problems with my licenses. In the end it required way too much deleting of this process and tweaking of that registrty key and rebooting. I've purchased a number of URGE tunes. Has anyone seen a notice from URGE about the fate of songs purcahsed from them?

[Jason Dunn]

I've purchased a number of URGE tunes. Has anyone seen a notice from URGE about the fate of songs purcahsed from them?

My advice? Download FairUse4WM immediately and strip all your songs of DRM:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=114916

Break the chains of DRM - you bought those songs, you own them.

[sojourner753]

This is one of the reasons why I never made the jump to the Zune. As tempting as it was.

Up to a couple of weeks ago I was using the Creative Zen M. Zero hassle. It works great with WMP11 which I think is much better then iTunes or the zune software. No drama. I currently don't have a player because it was stolen.

I'm waiting to see how Zune 2.0 materializes, but you can't beat the zero hassle factor. I just want my music and go.

Heck, I bought an older Creative device for my mother a couple of Christmas' ago. I was going to go back to her house a few days later to show her how rip and transfer her music, but she was already doing it.

Admittedly I'm not a big online store user though. Sorry, I guess this post was a bit off topic. But maybe not so much. Vendors and companies are making this music thing to deep.

Just make it work.