MSN Music

Posted on 2 Sep 2010 at 15:50

Microsoft’s first UK music download service, powered by Nokia’s OD2 platform, closed in March 2009 and its MSN Music replacement is still, six months after launch, in beta.

The promised music-streaming service has yet to materialise, and the store’s business model, where you pay up front for credits then spend them on the tracks and albums of your choice, doesn’t exactly encourage casual buyers.

Microsoft has its work cut out if it wants to make MSN Music a credible rival to Sky Songs and we7, let alone Amazon and Spotify

A pack of ten credits costs £7.99, with most singles available for a credit each, and most traditional length albums available for ten, or longer albums available at a reduced credit rate. For example, the re-issue of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street costs 14 credits for 28 tracks.

Its catalogue isn’t very extensive, however. Despite support from all the major labels, MSN only covers the basics of mainstream music rather than exploring the margins.

The user interface works notably better on Internet Explorer than it does on Chrome, where the site seems to become stuck on certain pages, and the Back button frequently refuses to work. There’s some integrated editorial from MSN, and only the minimum of themed playlists and options to browse by.

There is, at least, no extra software required to download tracks, and the only login you need is a Windows Live ID. However, Internet Explorer 8 gave us a security warning when we tried to buy credits, which didn’t inspire confidence.

And while MSN Music provides the option to re-download previously downloaded tracks from a My Music page, you can only do so once.

Tracks are provided in a mix of 320Kbits/sec MP3 and 192Kbits/sec WMA formats.

Microsoft has its work cut out if it wants to make MSN Music a credible rival to Sky Songs and we7, let alone Amazon and Spotify.

The credits system is off-putting and utterly unnecessary. The site is, however, powered by the same technology as the Zune service in the US, and the model might make more sense should Microsoft’s media player ever launch over here. For now, it’s one to avoid.