UNINNOVATE / Engineering At Its Finest

On October 12, 2004, Microsoft announced it’s first bold step to combat Apple’s dominance in the online music retail market. With the support of nearly every MP3 device manufacturer (aside from Apple) and a major press campaign at the ready, Microsoft lanched PlaysForSure:

PlaysForSure: The Easy Way to Find Devices and Services That “Just Work” Together

To help ensure a great experience with devices and services, Microsoft today also introduced the PlaysForSure logo and testing program, which is designed to make it easy for consumers to choose portable devices and services that are proven to work well together via Windows Media Player 10.

Microsoft and Partners Announce New Era of Digital Devices

PlaysForSure is a DRM standard. Any music player that supports PlaysForSure can play songs purchased from any PlaysForSure member music store. Of course, PlaysForSure is powered by Microsoft’s DRM technology and required manufacturers to sign agreements with Microsoft to participate.

To get manufacturers to support PlaysForSure, Microsoft visited them and laid out their PlaysForSure program plan. However, Microsoft also leveraged its Windows monopoly by promising future Windows compatibility only to those who supported PlaysForSure:

#5: Get Ready for Longhorn Today

Adopting the recommended PlaysForSure technologies in your device will enable it to work seamlessly with Windows codenamed “Longhorn” PCs

Microsoft presentation to business partners

Unfortunately, PlaysForSure was not much of a success compared to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Apple still controls 80% of the market and no PlaysForSure store has more than 4%.
Now Microsoft has a new approach. Today, Microsoft officially anounced it’s iPod clone, called the Zune. The Zune looks like the iPod, has it’s own music store that appears to be a clone of the iTunes Music Store, and even plays non-protected iPod-formatted videos and music. It also has some additional drm-crippled wireless features, but that’s an issue for another day.

Since the Zune has been widely expected for months, there has already been much discussion on the ethics and implications of Microsoft opening a Zune-branded store that competes with its PlaysForSure partners:

Early market share, however, isn’t likely to come from disgruntled iPod users looking to switch. The real losers in the short term are likely to be the likes of Creative, iRiver and other former partners that have failed to deliver to market share from Apple and will now find themselves not only competing with Apple but with their former partners from Redmond.

Michael Gartenberg - Zune is Real and Here’s What it Means - First Take Analysis

However, the final twist of the knife in the backs of Microsoft Partners like iRiver and Creative came today. Not only does the Zune compete with PlaysForSure partners, but it was confirmed that the Zune store would completely lock out PlaysForSure devices:

The Zune device and store will be a closed system, which Microsoft feels was the way to create the best total product and user experience. Tracks purchased at the Zune store can be played only on the Zune device. Those files will be 192kbps protected with WM-DRM.

Coolfer

Instead of building a store that is compatible with their existing technology, Microsoft decided to created a new DRM standard that locks out their own partners and existing users. They claim this was to create the best possible user experience, but there is no technical reason they couldn’t have built the new store while maintaining compatibility. User experience was one of the central themes in the PlaysForSure advertising campaign, but now Microsoft is using the same excuse to push a new format.

J Allard, head of the Zune project at Microsoft, claims that PlaysForSure isn’t going away and that Zune is simply aimed at a different market. However, these claims have been met with widespead skepticism. Many in the industry feel that Microsoft will slowly divorce itself from PlaysForSure and let the stardard die.

Unfortunately, the real losers are consumers who invested in PlaysForSure devices and music downloads. They face the unenviable choice of moving to the Zune and losing all of their purchased music or sticking with a dying platform while the Zune gradually takes over.
If you are thinking of investing a Zune and think the Zune store is a great idea, consider what you might be listening to music on five years from now. What happens to all the music you bought today when the next new music player comes along?

technorati tags:playsforsure, zune, drm, microsoft, itunes, apple, ipod