Microsoft, MTV Target Apple iTunesMicrosoft, MTV Target Apple iTunes

Microsoft Corp. and MTV Networks have unveiled a joint music service that will take on Apple Computer Inc.'s market leading iTunes music store.

The new service, shown Wednesday at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, combines Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11 with MTV's URGE service, which will offer music downloads and subscriptions, radio programming and editorial content, such as feature stories, interviews with musicians and music videos.

“Microsoft and MTV Networks have combined their strengths to dramatically redefine how Windows users discover and enjoy music,” Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in a statement.

Microsoft's next-generation media player is expected to be available in the first half of this year for Windows XP. It will also be the music and video player for Vista, the next major upgrade of the Windows operating system scheduled for release this year.

The Microsoft-MTV service, which is also expected to provide tools for burning CDs and organizing music libraries on a PC, would have all of the core features of iTunes, but go at least one better in promising a music subscription service. ITunes subscribers can download songs or albums, but Apple does not let customers listen to all the music they want for a monthly fee, a service growing in popularity and offered by rivals such as RealNetworks, Napster and Yahoo Inc.

While subscription services don't let consumers own the songs or burn them to CDs, they do let consumers download music to portable music players. The Microsoft-MTV service would also provide that capability.

Apple's biggest advantage is the tight integration of iTunes with Apple iPod, which accounts for about three-fourths of the digital player market. Apple does not allow other music services to have the same level of integration.

To date, manufacturers of portable music players that operate on Microsoft's multimedia platform have been out-marketed by Apple. In partnering with MTV, however, Microsoft has aligned itself with a marketing machine that could help boost its position in the online music market.

MTV, a division of Viacom Inc., plans to market URGE across its cable network, which includes MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul and CMT. The channels have 165 million U.S. viewers.

In addition, URGE will be integrated with MTV's entertainment Web sites, MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com.

URGE is expected to be available this year, but an exact date has not been announced. The service will offer songs for sale through a catalog of more than 2 million tunes supplied by MusicNet, a business-to-business digital music service provider. Pricing was not released, but songs sold on iTunes cost 99 cents each.

In releasing Vista, Microsoft is positioning future Windows PCs as an entertainment hub for the home. The operating system will include capabilities for organizing, finding and playing music, video and photos. It also will have capabilities related to Internet television, or IPTV, and the ability to distribute multimedia content on a home network.