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The urge to merge... MTV Networks is abandoning its online music effort Urge. Instead, it plans to work with RealNetworks in the hopes of giving Apple’s iTunes a run for its money. Urge was launched with Microsoft last year, but has struggled to gain market share against iTunes, which accounted for 68 percent of music files legally downloaded from PCs between November 2006 and January 2007. Urge will be merged with RealNetworks’ subscription digital-music service, Rhapsody, and, while the new service, Rhapsody America, will contain some of the features of Urge, the brand itself will die, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
The music-download product will be carried on PCs and on mobile phones under a deal with Verizon’s Vcast service.
Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Research Inc. analyst, said that Rhapsody America won’t threaten iTunes, but that it should allow the partners to “squeeze a little more market share from Apple’s grip,” writes ComputerWorld. He predicts that in order to unseat iTunes, the unlocking of digital rights management will have to happen first. Then, there will have to be a music player as successful as the iPod in wait. He adds, “I don’t see one yet.”
The Urge website announces the merger, claiming that by joining forces, the companies will “bring you an unparalleled digital music entertainment experience.”
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