From the Dark Side--M$ iTunes Music Store Copy Opens Today

Microsoft's digital music store opens today as a test version and, surprise surprise, it copies Apple's iTune's Music Store right down to using its own proprietary format. The look and feel of the M$ music store is likely to be less Mac-like but the songs will cost 99 cents and they will number up to 1 million just like iTunes according to this AP news article. The main differnce is that the songs from M$ won't run on the market-leading player, the iPod, but will run on some 70 other devices. The final version will completed in October with the level of "innovation" we've come to expect from M$. [Dana Baggett]