Microsoft have officially launched their music-downloading service - MSN Music. Very much in the vein of iTunes et al the new service will make tracks available for 99 cents a time and whole albums for $9.99. The service will initially be US exclusive with no word on global expansion just yet. As previously reported, Microsoft hope to get a healthy chunk of the download market, despite their late arrival, by tapping into the millions of people around the world who already use the Windows Media Player or access MSN on a regular basis.
Launching MSN Music, Microsoft said their service was much better than Apple's iTunes - with a file format that delivered a better sound quality. MSN vice president Yusuf Mehdi said: "We are encoding at a higher bit rate than Apple's standard format for iTunes, meaning that these songs should have better sound quality. And we are offering what we believe is the largest and highest quality catalogue of legal music on the internet, available on the broadest selection of portable devices".