Microsoft slutar utveckla PlaysForSure

Postat: 2007-01-14 kl. 15.29

Microsofts drm-teknik PlaysForSure, som bland andra Napster, Yahoo! Music och MTV Urge använder, kommer inte utvecklas vidare enligt nätuppgifter baserade på intervjuer under CES:

I asked an executive at one of those music subscription services point blank whether his company, which uses PlaysForSure, was being shafted by Microsoft and his answer was a blunt yes. Others involved in the industry who I've spoken with agreed.

That doesn't mean that the subscription services such as Napster and Rhapsody will fade away. Other DRM schemes exist and RealNetworks, which runs the Rhapsody music service, is working on its own DRM scheme that it hopes to sell to such vendors. But it does mean that Microsoft first lured these services in with PlaysForSure as a way to compete against Apple and iTunes, then hung them out to dry when they didn't grow as quickly as Microsoft expected. Industry insiders here say that Microsoft is finished improving PlaysForSure and, instead, is concentrating on its own Zune hardware, service and digital rights management software.

Computerworld Blogs Microsoft uses Zune to stab friends in the back (2007-01-08)

Den teknik som finns kommer naturligtvis finnas kvar, men Microsoft beräknas lägga all framtida utveckling i Zune Marketplace istället:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that he expects PlaysForSure to continue, although he has explained that Zune was conceived because the PlaysForSure approach had failed to dent Apple's dominance of digital music.

'We said, if we just keep on our current model, it's unclear that we're going to expand our footprint in these portable devices,' he said in an interview prior to Zune's November launch.

PC Pro Music stores face closure of Microsoft DRM programme - reports (2007-01-10)