MusicNet Offers Music in Microsoft Format
SEATTLE (AP) — Recently jilted by RealNetworks, the digital music service MusicNet is allying with RealNetworks’ rival Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Digital music service MusicNet announced that its library of more than 350,000 songs from major and independent record labels are now available for download and CD burning in Microsoft’s Windows Media format. Previously, the music had only been available in RealNetworks’ format.
The move is designed to broaden the company’s appeal to potential distributors of MusicNet’s music subscription service, the company said.
America Online is the only distributor of MusicNet’s service, in which subscribers pay a monthly fee for access to listen to and burn music tracks onto CDs.
The move is not a dig at RealNetworks which still owns about 40 percent of MusicNet, said Ann Garrett, MusicNet’s spokeswoman.
In fact, MusicNet had already started the process of encoding the music files into Windows Media format before RealNetworks’ announcement in April that it would buy Listen.com.
RealNetworks has since dropped MusicNet’s service from its subscription offerings in favor of Listen.com’s Rhapsody service.
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