Today, Microsoft has admitted that they copied Apple's iTunes music store. Microsoft has released a beta of their online music store. They told the New York Times that "Apple set the bar very high. We told our developers: 'Look at how Apple does it'. The Microsoft music store couldn't look more like Apple's iTunes music store if you ran it through a copying machine." The prices are the exact same as the iTunes music store, which is 99c a song and $10 an album. Users can copy to five computers and burn up to seven copies of the same playlist aswell as downloading to unlimited amounts of pocket players.
So it comes down to the question, since everything is the same, which company will come out on top? Apple has already had great success with iTunes having sold over 100 million tracks. They also account for about 70% of all music downloads currently. Microsoft sells albums by Radiohead, AC/DC, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers but unfortunately and very unfairly, you cannot buy individual tracks from the albums, you have to buy the entire album. The iTunes music store does not sell anything from these bands for that reason.
Source:
Macworld UK
Source:
Macworld UK
