First look at URGE and WMP 11

Michael Gartenberg | May 15, 2006, 02:42 PM

It was first announced back before CES but today, I can start talking officially about my experiences with the new URGE music service being released jointly by Microsoft and MTV. Rather than wait until Vista ships next year, Microsoft and MTV have gone ahead and released the first version of URGE this week. Closely tied to Windows Media Player 11, URGE will formally go into a public beta on Wed. and you can sign up for a free two week trial of the service. Here's what you can expect. The download for WMP 11 was fairly small, about 22mb and installed without issue (although if you're using it on a MacBook, please let me know). When you install, you're asked if you want to also install URGE as a default choice (you can select from other services as well but URGE is the real story here). Once you're installed and set up your account you start to see how some of the changes made to WMP 11 work well. The whole experience is less cluttered and far more streamlined (sort of like that other music player from that other company in Cupertino). The UI borrows heavily from Vista but doesn't feel out of place. Overall, all my playlists were imported but clearly WMP and iTunes metadata don't play well. Some of my album art didn't show at all, some was just gone in both places. Several CDs were split as if they were two or three different disks, even though they were tagged correctly and worked fine in iTunes. Don't get me wrong, it was nothing major but if you're going to have both of these programs managing your music, expect some issues.

The real fun comes when you start using URGE. As part of the URGE install, you download the entire catalog of 2.5 million songs to your computer. That makes searches quick (although the beta nature of the software was clear with a few performance glitches here and there). What's nice is that if you're subscribed to the portable download service, you can simply create a playlist for sync and the songs will download by themselves and then sync over to your device. URGE is also clearly targeted for music discovery, Most artists allow you create a feed that is automatically downloaded and updated with music by and similar to the chosen artist. I easily set up a bunch of feeds and albums to sync for the road and it worked flawlessly. This feature really shows off the powerful nature of the subscription model and offers some nice innovation for discovering new music (after all, navigating through two million tracks can be daunting). One of the biggest issues that subscription services have had is that no one has taken the time to explain the benefits of the model to consumers who have simply never had the ability to rent music in this fashion before.

Now all this is fine but what about when you want to take music on the road? URGE and WMP 11 work with any "Plays for Sure" labeled device. (That is, any device that actually supports subscription downloaded content, so read the fine print on the box carefully.) I've been using a 2gb iRiver Clix, the follow on the U10 (iRiver seems to be learning something about branding). It's about the size of a box of matches and has a nice flash based UI. It can also play back video and some flash based games but I mostly have been using the music features. This is one of the devices that will be showcased with URGE and it's a nice player. I do prefer devices that are a little thinner (makes them more pocektable) and with higher capacity so I plan on hooking URGE up with a Sandisk Sansa E series, which comes in 4 and 6 gig capacities and has a look very similar to the iPod nano (in fact, the Sandisk line across the board is extremely well done and while it lacks the iPod brand and total elegance of Apple's offering, they're great designs and good values). Windows Mobile devices that are running WMP 10 will also work with URGE, I had no problem loading a few CDs onto the Star Trek phone I've been using.

So overall, how does WMP 11/URGE combo stack up against the iPod/iTunes? Well, if you're looking at it from the music store perspective, it's hard to see how this combination bests Apple in any way. While Microsoft talks about the value of the platform, most consumers are too busy listening to their iPods to listen to the message. In terms of a music subscription services, URGE shines. The onboard catalog of music, combined with great editorial content and new innovations like music feeds make this service really stand out from the pack. Add in a good portable device and you start to see how the market can potentially shift over time to a new model. Right now, a lot will come down to marketing. Microsoft still lacks a spokesperson who can deliver the message across and while URGE and WMP 11 are tightly integrated, there's still not a great story being told about device integration and branding. It may not be enough to remove Apple from king of the digital music world but it very well has the chance to expose the market to the benefits of subscription services and that in and of itself is a pretty big thing. But don't take my word, download the app on Wed and take a spin for yourself for two weeks.