URGE

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This article is about the online music service. For other uses, see Urge.

Urge Music Store on WMP 11 Beta for Windows Vista

URGE or URGE.com is an online music service announced on December 13, 2005 and released on May 17, 2006. It is a collaboration between MTV and Microsoft. It has been integrated with Microsoft's Windows Media Player Version 11.0 and newer.

1 All Access
2 Radio
3 Details
4 Analysis
5 Response
6 External links

[edit] All Access

All Access is URGE's subscription plan. All Access grants you unlimited music downloads, radio, and other features. The music downloaded can be played on up to 3 different PCs and streamed to any number of PlaysForSure compliant media receivers such as the Roku SoundBridge or Xbox 360. The plan starts at $9.95 a month. The "To Go" plan, which adds the ability to place the All Access content on portable PlaysForSure players, costs $14.95 a month. No subscription content can be burned to CD; this is only available with individually purchased tracks.

[edit] Radio

URGE features radio comparable to XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. The radio feature can be accessed with an All Access Membership. However, there is at least one free station in every genre. There are about 130 stations so far.

[edit] Details

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Microsoft's original press release on the service claims that the beta service already has the support of industry members, naming specifically Clive Davis, Alicia Keys and Chris Martin. It also claimed that the service would launch with over two million song titles, roughly the same number of titles in the catalog of iTunes Music Store, the current industry leader in online music services.

The service is expected to be aggressively promoted on the various MTV Networks, including the MTV, VH1, and CMT music channels. Further details are expected at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

[edit] Analysis

The tight integration with Windows Media Players lead many early analysts to speculate that the product will not be compatible with the popular iPod portable music player. Though many other music services have attempted and failed to challenge the dominance of iTunes and iPod in the music space, many analysts feel that MTV's strong brand recognition and position as a leader in the music world will bolster its position and make it a viable alternative.^{[citation needed]}

This move is also seen as a rejection of the Rhapsody music service, which Microsoft had formerly been promoting through its MSN portal site.

[edit] Response

The new music service has been reviewed in several places, despite its current beta status. A prominent CNET review gave the service an 8.0 on a ten point scale. Excerpts from the review can be found below.

"The good: MTV Urge is seamlessly integrated into the powerful Windows Media Player 11, which makes quick work of searching the music service's 2-million-plus song catalog. It's a pleasure to use the service to discover new music, thanks to its gorgeous graphical interface and plethora of hand-programmed content, such as playlists and radio stations.

The bad: Still in beta, MTV Urge has some bugs to work out. Navigating between options can be slow, the service froze a couple times, and the help section isn't filled out yet. There's no option to take video content to go on compatible devices.

The bottom line: Despite some glitches, MTV Urge is one of the best subscription music services we've seen to date. If taking your choice of millions of songs with you anywhere sounds appealing, make sure you check out this offering from MTV." Copyright CNET, 2006.

Ed Bott, a technology writer, has these counter comments in his blog on ZDNet:

Sounds good, until you read the Urge license agreement. (Set aside some time - it’s a 6800-word document that goes on for 13 printed pages.) There is no way I’m going to allow a piece of software to update itself and install new “features” with no notification or consent to me.