OpenRoad + Mod7
Two pioneering organizations, together at last.
OpenRoad is pleased to announce the acquisition of creative agency Mod7.
Read the letter from our PrincipalMicrosoft goes after music. Again.
Posted on October 16, 2012 in Media Culture by Mod7
Xbox Music is Microsoft's latest initiative (remember Zune ?) aimed at grabbing back some market share from... well, from everyone else, really. And in keeping with their typical product-launch tactic, they launch with a lot of hype but not a lot of information, other than a giant "Coming Soon" page. And, oh for goodness sake: They don't even let you sign-up for newsletters right on the Coming Soon page —you've got to following the tiny link to yet another microsite where you need to spend some time decoding exactly how (and if) you can sign-up to get the information you want. Really, Microsoft? Really? We want to like you, we really do, but you need to give us more to work with. Sigh.
Anyway. The beauty, in this case, really is in the fine print. The summary:
- Free streaming for up to 10 hours per month? Cool.
- Unlimited streaming with paid subscription? OK, we're down. (How much will that cost, exactly?)
- Streaming happens across all your devices? Yes! Wait. Oh. Only if all your devices are Microsoft devices (Windows 8/Windows RT tablet, PC, Windows Phone 8, Xbox 360). Couldn't take a cue from Apple and play nice, eh?
Will they do better with the whole digital-rights-management thing this time around? Let's hope so. Some us still have songs bought on Zune. Like, three of them. Unfortunately we can't play them on any device we own.