IT'D BE GREAT IF IT WASN'T WINDOWS MEDIA

Now, our dislike of Windows Media isn't (totally) built on a kneejerk dislike of Bill Gates and his monolith - it just doesn't do the job as well as Quicktime or Real, in our experience; we suspect that this is down to it carrying the usual bunch of garbage and DRM that Microsoft pour into seemingly everything they ever do. So, had we been looking to launch a premium, high-end download service, we really wouldn't have plumped for windows media as being the obvious choice. However, with such high quality, you'd need to be able to calm the record labels down and convince them that the tracks would be virtually useless.

MusicGiant has launched this lossless service in the US; you have to pay fifty bucks up front in order to be able to access the tracks which cost $1.29 each. We're not convinced the market is going to be there for this - not with such a hefty upfront payment - but it'll be interesting to see what happens.

music downloads microsoft