Microsoft has formed an alliance with American Express to promote its MSN Music store in the US. According to the New York Post, the partnership will mean that customers who pay for tracks with an AmEx card will receive free tracks. In addition consumers who apply for an AmEx blue card through MSN will get a free track package. The partnership is part of Microsoft's attempts to secure a place in the Apple dominated download sector as the Christmas market approaches.
Elsewhere in download partnerships, Napster in the UK have announced they have forged a relationship with the Post Office which will see the company's pre-pay download cards sold in the Post Office's 16,000 branches around Britain. The deal is on the same lines as that Napster struck with UK-wide electronics retailer Dixons.