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The ever-changing state of online music is turning into a tale of two monopolies with the announcement Thursday that Pressplay, the music venture backed by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group (UMG), has joined leagues with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to deliver a co-branded MSN Music subscription service.
Pressplay, formerly known as Duet, will now be able to deliver its music subscription service through the Microsoft Windows Media format. It also gains access to Windows Media digital rights management (DRM) technology for content protection.
"Microsoft needed a good content partner in order to continue to push the Windows Media platform," Webnoize director of research Lee Black told the E-Commerce Times. "From Pressplay's perspective, at least we now know they have a technology platform and a powerful partner, so they're moving ahead."
The new alliance puts some serious competitive heat on MusicNet, the joint venture that includes RealNetworks, BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music and Warner Music Group.
Musical Chairs
The deal 
with MSN is Pressplay's second major alliance. In April, Pressplay
announced that Yahoo! will initially market Pressplay as a streaming-music
channel and later offer digital downloads to the millions of Web surfers who
use the Internet portal.
MSN Music also debuted in April, offering consumers a personalized streaming music service. The company said the new Pressplay subscription service is expected to launch this summer in the U.S., and Europe in the fall, but Black is skeptical about the real timing for either MusicNet or Pessplay.
"I think we're still a year-and-a-half away from a service consumers will be willing to pay for in terms of digital music, because the publishers' licenses are such a nightmare and just aren't there yet," Black said.
Half-Fledged
Black also said that Pressplay, which currently has the rights to offer only Sony and Universal licensed music, still has a ways to go before it will become a full-fledged online music player.
"Their next move has to be getting some more content and to introduce some business models from which either consumers or affiliates can plug into," Black said.
The stage has now been set for an evolving battle between two online music powerhouses. But which one has the advantage: MusicNet -- whose licensees include America Online and Napster -- or Pressplay with its Microsoft backbone?
Advantage MusicNet
According to Black, it depends on whether the issue is content or technology.
"As far as content, MusicNet, which uses RealNetworks' player software, has the better advantage," said Black. "From a technology standpoint, we hear better things about Microsoft's technology than RealNeworks, but I kind of think that content is more important."
But at the end of the day, Black believes, it may be Web consumers who lose out.
"From a consumer standpoint, now there's a
duopoly of online music guarded by two technology platforms," Black said.
Talkback: 
