Gunning for iTunes

On the eve of a major technology rollout, subscription music services grapple with marketing strategies.

Don't look now, but the world of digital music is about to get rocked.

This quarter, leading online music services that offer consumers monthly subscriptions and individual song downloads will try to gain ground on Apple's iTunes by introducing the ability to move subscription-based songs onto a plethora of MP3 players, thereby answering one of the biggest criticisms leveled against the services.

When the subscription services become portable, the effect should be nothing short of revolutionary -- immediately leveling, if not reversing, the current iTunes-dominated digital music market.

Digital music subscription services such as Napster, Yahoo's MusicMatch, Virgin Digital, and Real Networks' Rhapsody allow consumers the ability to stream more than 800,000 songs to the PC for roughly $10 per month.

Up until now, though, there's been a catch: subscribers can't take the music with them.

Burning songs onto CDs costs more, and if a user wants to download an individual track, in many cases that costs more as well. And since the music is streamed over the Internet, subscribers couldn't move any songs onto MP3 players.

"No one wants to lug their laptop into their car and hook it up to their car stereo," says Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital. Consumers are using streaming subscription services right now "in the short period of time at home or office. [Subscribers] are very interested in portability. It's the biggest issue."

To make those song portable, the services have turned to Microsoft's Janus technology.

Introduced late last year, Janus uses software and hardware hooks to make sure a song's usage licenses are up-to-date. Using Janus, subscribers will be able to drag and drop songs from their streaming music service onto certified portable music players.

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The technology is part of Microsoft's "Plays For Sure" initiative, a sweeping marketing effort aimed at helping consumers understand what services and content can play on what devices. A Plays For Sure logo on a portable digital player, for example, means that it will play music from any service that also features a logo.

In terms of storage, consumers will be limited only by the capacity of their players, provided they maintain their monthly subscription and dock the device at least once a month to update the licenses.