I am probably late to the game on this one, and it really doesn’t surprise me, but it sure is annoying.
About a year ago, I bought and downloaded one song from MSN Music.
Today, I purchased my second song, this time from Apple’s iTunes.
Then, I wanted to burn both to a CD. Of course, iTunes refused to read the music signed by MSN Music. And, of course, Windows Media Player can’t grok the new “mp4” format that you download from iTunes. So, I can’t burn them together. Well – you probably can, but you probably have to go through 10 steps I don’t care to learn.
So, I didn’t use them both. I used iTunes today, but I could have easily picked either service.
After the fact, I did some reading on this, andthere seems to be agreement, that iPod is indeed at fault for being proprietary. Read here and here.
Can you guys go settle this out and use a common format? You don’t do yourselves, or anyone else, any favors by not agreeing on the formats for music. In my opinion, you BOTH SUCK for letting this happen. Nonetheless, next time I download music next year, I’m using MSN Music again. (I know, big spender. This will certainly change roadmaps ’round the globe)