Music services using Janus may be a major competitor to iTunes

July 19, 2004

Microsoft's upcoming Janus
technology aims to allow subscription based services to become
a major competitor to Apple's iTunes.
Currently, users must pay for each song they wish to transfer to their
portable player. However,
with a subscription service using Janus technology, users can download all they
want and transfer to a Janus compatible player for a flat subscription fee.

MusicNow and Napster are preparing their services to support Janus. Currently both offer unlimited downloads
for a flat rate subscription, however the music is locked to the user's PC
only. Janus support will allow
consumers to take their music on the move, but prevent copying to other PCs and
equipment in an aim to prevent piracy.
A spokeswoman for Napster says that this closely resembles the
peer-to-peer model.

MusicNow expects to have their service up and running in 3rd or 4th
quarter. Napster said that the
subscription pricing with portable player support will be higher than its
current $ 9.95 pricing, but less than $ 20 per month. Creative Labs,
Rio, Dell and iRiver will offer Janus support in
upcoming players. Microsoft MSN
expects to offer its service this fall.

Hoping to put a dent in the popularity of Apple Computer's music download service, online music subscription providers are readying services that allow users to shift rented songs to portable digital music players.

If the offerings catch on, it would mark a victory for Web music providers such as Napster and MusicNow and for Microsoft, which is providing the software designed to ensure that the enhanced subscription-based services can be offered without opening a new front for digital piracy.

Music subscription providers allow members to listen to an unlimited number of songs for a monthly fee, but the services have been hamstrung by restrictions on transferring the songs to digital music players.

But providers say the new digital rights management technology, code-named Janus, from Microsoft, will enable subscribers to listen to music subscriptions on the go, while providing assurance to record companies that their copyrighted content will not be pirated.

By contrast, Apple's hugely popular online music store iTunes allows users to buy songs outright that they can then transfer to one of the company's popular iPod music players.

With Janus, online music subscription providers say they will have an answer for users complaining about not being able to take their music with them beyond their personal computers.

"The platform enables subscription content to be transferred to a device, making it easier for these services to deliver," said Erin Cullen, lead product manager, Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.

Microsoft's MSN plans to launch a music
service this fall.

Read the full article here.

Microsoft's Janus technology seems to offer the next best thing to
download-all-you-want music service for a fixed fee. While there are many portable hard drive based
players on the market, very few consumers could afford to purchase enough music
through download services to fill their player. For example a typical 20GB
player could easily store 5,000 tracks, but how many are willing to fork out $
5,000 (assuming $ 1 per song) to fill it?

However, there are a few catches to Janus
enabled players and services:
Unlike current Pay-per-download services, music cannot be transferred to
CD or to another PC. Like a gym
membership where the consumer must keep paying to use its equipment, the same
applies to this service; otherwise the user loses access to all their music that
was downloaded under their subscription. Finally player support may be
limited to Windows XP with Windows Media Player 10 (coming soon) only, which could pose a problem for non XP
users.