I thought it might be nice to have a discussion about the online music stores available. In particular MSN Music which was opened only a few weeks ago
What do you think is better MSN Music or iTunes ? They are both very good stores and some people like me and Apple fans have probably already made their minds up but the other people might want to discuss it.
Here are some facts:
MSN Music
encodes at 160kb WMA
has over 1 million tracks
has the "five big labels" plus 2000 independant labels
$.99 for tracks, $9.99 for albums
compatible with over 70 devices
Read a review at MSN Music Review
iTunes
encodes at 128kb AAC
has over 1 million tracks
has the "four big labels" plus 600 independant labels
$.99 for tracks, $9.99 for albums
compatible with very few devices

PS: DRM is the same for both services at unlimited burn to CD or portable devices and music can be played on 5 different PC's or macs
Also, the big five labels are BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, and Warner

well -_- By your statistics its easy to see that Msn Music is better -_- But i dont buy my music -_- but if i did id go with Msn Music..

I don't buy music online, but I wouldn't go with the MSN music store because they use WMA files. I really don't like the format.

You should add info like "Is there DRM?" "How many CDs can you burn your song on?" etc. This isn't comparing with all the facts.

I don't buy music online, but I would go with Apple if I did.

edit: Oh, and who are the "big labels"?

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http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=33900

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Originally posted by bach_m
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http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=33900

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Top post has been updates to include DRM and big 5 labels

I personally would never use either, but If I had to, would probably use MSN Music, because it just looks more reliable and cheaper. But there are many more ways to get music now other than these to, think about Sony Music/Napster/SuperNova for instance, more widely used than these two put together probably!!

iTunes is the same price as MSN Music

I would go with iTunes because the "independant lables" carry a lot of good music, and the "big labels" tend to carry the over-rated off-the-shelf bands.

um saralk did you actually read my stats!!! iTunes only has 600 independant while MSN Music has 2000 so MSN Music will, according to your theory, have more good music

Moreover, I think that MSN Music distributes music in the wma format, which is playable by many music players, like Creative music players etc. Also, the DRM is a built-in feature, and thus any music player can recognise te DRM. However, iTunes sells music with the aac format, which is unplayable by any other music player other than iTunes and iPods. Talk about monopoly.

itunes is 79p per track and 7.99 per album


or was last time i looked.......Anyway the acc format can be changed easily.

no my prices are in $ fukafly so yes in £ itunes is 79p and 7.99 per album.
in fact MSN Music is only 69p and £6.99 for albums so in fact MSN Music is cheaper in the UK!!