just wish i had gone ahead and bought more the other day!!!
yessssssss......
Microsoft partners with Web music firm Liquid Audio
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said Saturday it was partnering with Internet music firm Liquid Audio Inc. in a deal the companies said would help bring more order to the chaotic online music marketplace.
Under the deal, Liquid Audio software will include support for Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format that is used to encode digital music so it takes up less space on a hard drive and can be sent quickly over the Internet.
The deal is another step forward for Microsoft in its drive to make the WMA format the most popular way to listen to and download music over the Internet.
It also gives Liquid Audio, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of software tools to record, distribute and play digital music online, the endorsement of the world's biggest software company.
``Microsoft as a technology leader and Liquid Audio as the leading music distributor are partnering to make it easier for customers -- record labels, retailers and consumers -- to participate in the digital music revolution,' Microsoft said.
WMA is one of several competing formats from companies like Internet media pioneer RealNetworks Inc. and Liquid Audio itself. It is also up against the popular MP3 format that has triggered much of the interest in the online music industry.
Eager to avoid the kind of bruising format battle that delayed adoption of the video cassette, most music and software companies are striking partnerships to support the various formats in consumer software, making it invisible to the average user.
Liquid has an extensive library of 50,000 downloadable songs and 1 million preview clips it has encoded using its format.
Liquid will encode that music in WMA, update its Liquid Player software to handle playback of WMA files, and embrace Microsoft's rights management tool -- a service that is key to making sure people pay for the music they are listening to.
``It really expands labels' ability to reach millions of consumers with Microsoft's incredible installed base of players,' Liquid Chief Executive Gerry Kearby said in an interview of the deal.
Shares in Liquid Audio rose 7/8 to 25-7/8 in trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, while Microsoft fell 2-1/4 to 103-3/4.
08:01 01-22-00 |
