MSN Music Still a Work in Progress.

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Author: Dreier, Troy

The emerging area of on-line music shopping has seen tremendous growth lately, with innovations cropping up from iTunes, Musicmatch, and RealPlayer. Now Microsoft has entered the arena and has brought, well, the Microsoft name. The MSN Music site, now in public preview and set for its full-featured debut in mid-October, instantly makes Microsoft a major player in the field, although the store has a decidedly me-too feel about it right now.

When we tested it, MSN Music offered over 500,000 tracks; it should have one million by its official launch date, putting it on a par with Apple's iTunes Music Store. One welcome innovation: Users can access the store through a browser â€" or via the excellent Windows Media Player 10 multimedia jukebox app (First Looks, October 5) â€" and get the same clean white-themed interface in each. Purchased tracks are 160-Kbps variable-bit-rate WMA files, and buyers can play them on up to five different machines or burn a playlist seven times.

The UI is clean, but almost too much so: The store has a bare-bones feel to it. The front Dane offers current selections, as well as links for concert tickets and music news. You can browse within 20 different genres, looking at the top albums, top songs, and editors' picks for each. Album pages have brief reviews and links to related artists. A handy rating feature lets you rate any song from one to five stars and see other people's ratings. You can also read user reviews, although that requires clicking to a different page.

MSN Music's helpful search page gives you results in three sections â€" albums, artists, and songs â€" so that you get complete results for every search. We also like the free radio options, which mimic the playlists of radio stations around the country.

Beyond that, there isn't much to MSN Music. There are no audio books, gift certificates, or allowances. You won't find Billboard charts, an online magazine, or a community forum, and there are no ways to share your finds with your friends. That makes browsing dull â€" and makes it hard to find interesting new artists.

Microsoft says it will be adding such features in the coming year, as the service matures. Until it gets there, try Napster or the ever-excellent iTunes Music Store.

99 cents for most tracks, $9.90 for most albums. Microsoft Corp., http://beta.music.msn.com. @@@##

THE MSN MUSIC EXPERIENCE looks and feels the same whether you arrive via a browser or Media Player 10.

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By Troy Dreier