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Technology Stocks : Liquid Audio Inc - (Nasdaq- LQID) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: R Hamilton who wrote (553)	1/24/2000 10:22:00 AM
From: R Hamilton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 674

wired.com Microsoft's New Liquid Asset by Michael Stroud 3:00 a.m. 24.Jan.2000 PST Watch out RealNetworks. Liquid Audio plans to integrate Windows Media audio technology into its music delivery platform, moving the Microsoft standard a step closer to surpassing Real's among digital music fans. Read how MP3 Rocks the Web Read more in E-Biz In an agreement revealed over the weekend, Liquid Audio of Redwood City, California, and the Redmond, Washington, software giant announced plans to encode and distribute Liquid's catalog of 50,000 downloadable songs and 1 million music previews in the Windows Media format. The deal also provides for Liquid to deploy Windows Media servers in its data centers, which host and distribute content for hundreds of networked retailers. Liquid plans to blend Windows Media's antipiracy features, such as digital watermarks and encryption with its own intellectual property rights management and reporting services. And it will add Windows Media support to Liquid Player software, so that all of its customers have access to Liquid's content in the Windows Media format. The alliance gives Microsoft an upper hand in its competition against RealPlayer for the burgeoning online music market. According to Microsoft figures, 14.3 percent of American households online use the Windows Media format, and 16.8 percent use Real. Most of the remaining 68.9 percent don't use a media player at all, and that represents a huge opportunity for Microsoft, Liquid Audio, and Real. "Three years ago, people didn't want to talk about digital distribution [of music]; now you have whole business models being built around it," Kevin Unangst, group product manager for digital media at Microsoft said in an interview. "We've gone to a streaming world where it's perfectly possible to distribute [online] top labels." If there were ever any doubt about that future, it was erased by America Online's acquisition of Time Warner, in which online music distribution will play a key role. British music giant EMI also confirmed Sunday that it had reached a US$1 billion dollar joint venture agreement with Time Warner. EMI recently selected Liquid to encode its entire catalog, and 50 Warner Music tracks using the Liquid format are currently available on Amazon.com, according to Andrea Fleming, Liquid's vice president for corporate marketing. Liquid has also encoded music from BMG and Sony. Microsoft's digital rights management software is likely to become increasingly important as major record labels begin serious distribution of their music online. To date, fears of digital piracy has slowed the widespread release of online music. The deal is also designed to position Microsoft and Liquid as formats of choice for a new wave of downloadable music players expected from consumer electronics companies such as Sony, Panasonic, and Rio during the first quarter. Fleming declined to speculate on whether the agreement with Microsoft might presage Liquid's acquisition by a major software or media player looking to secure its position in the emerging online music universe. Microsoft and Liquid officials declined to discuss financial details of their agreement. Liquid already supports RealPlayer and plans to continue doing so. But Fleming left no doubt that the Microsoft deal takes precedence. "What we're doing with those other people is plugging in [our format to their players]," she said. "With the Microsoft deal, we're plugging in [their format] throughout [our] system." Have a comment on this article? Send it Email this to a friend. Fax this from your computer for free