And talking of subscription service download platforms, according to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has abandoned its plans to launch a Napster style digital music offer.
Microsoft has been keen for a while to launch its own download service, to try to combat Apple's dominance in the space, and to promote use of its Windows Media format. However the IT firm has ended its talks with all four major labels, apparently unwilling to accept the $6-8 per user licence fee the record companies were pushing for. This despite protestations from the industry that that was the going rate accepted by the other subscription service providers.
The journal says that Microsoft's digital music plans are now "indefinitely postponed". Of course many of the companies already offering subscription services use Microsoft's WMA audio format. Therefore, had Microsoft gone ahead with their download platform plans, they would have been competing with the organisations who are already championing their codec. Whether that fact had any influence on their decision to stand back from this space isn't clear - though the IT firm may well now decide to partner with and support those existing WMA-using download platforms rather than compete with them.