Windows Media 7 Plays Catch With RealNetworks

A preview of the beta version of Windows Media Player 7, released in April, features a new look, an integrated jukebox, and an automatic link to an Internet music guide database. Microsoft’s forthcoming consumer operating system, Windows Millennium, will bundle both the new player and an improved Windows Media Rights Manager for music copyright protection. With other elements of the Windows Media Technologies 7.0 platform scheduled for beta release in May, the upgrade constitutes another step in Microsoft’s relentless catch-up race with RealNetworks.

Digital Media: Microsoft vs. RealNetworks

The final verdict in the Department of Justice’s antitrust case includes a ruling that Microsoft illegally bundled additional software (a Web browser) with its operating system in order to destroy a rival (Netscape) selling a competing product—see “Microsoft Found Guilty in Antitrust Trial“. Undeterred by the guilty verdict in that case, which Microsoft will appeal, the company is pushing aggressively ahead with similar tactics against RealNetworks. Like Netscape in 1995, RealNetworks now enjoys a significant lead in market share. (Figures are slippery depending on what’s measured, but according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, about 85% of the streaming content on the Internet is in RealNetworks’ format and its jukebox software owns about 80% of the downloaded music market.) However, as it did with its browser in the mid-1990s, Microsoft has been gradually upgrading its digital media offerings to match the market leader’s features.