Microsoft Plays A New Tune

By Wilson Rothman

A superpower joined the legal-music-downloading war last week when Microsoft launched an operational preview of the MSN Music store. The formula is similar to that of Apple's iTunes Music Store, with 99-c- song downloads and albums for about $9.99. MSN's advantage: you don't need new software to browse its titles. Instead, you can use Internet Explorer to surf to the service--currently at beta.music.msn.com--or access the store from the latest version of Windows Media Player. Also, MSN is compatible with more than 70 portable music players; iTunes was designed to be compatible with only Apple's iPod. --By Wilson Rothman