| Microsoft recently announced two new multimedia add-on features to Windows XP, its new operating system due to be released on October 25. The software packages will enable Windows users to record digital music files in the MP3 format, the most popular form for storing music files on a computer. Users will also have the option to view digital videos if their PCs lack a digital video decoder.
Pricing details for the new features, which will be available for purchase and download through internal links in Microsoft’s Windows Media Player for Windows XP, were not released.
Prior to the software giant’s acceptance of the MP3 format, critics had charged the company with pushing its own form of online music storage, called Windows Media Audio.
In a related development, Microsoft joined music companies Vivendi Universal and Sony to create Pressplay, an online music subscription service that will be available on its MSN network. Pressplay would go head to head with MusicNet, the online music collaboration between AOL Time Warner and music companies Warner Music, EMI Group and Bertelsmann Music Group. Neither service has set a release date. |
