the digital music wars will be ugly. literally ugly.

Can't but read this story about how Bill Gates and MTV are teaming up to take on iTunes and cringe a little bit. Sure, apple and its proprietary m4u technology is irksome, and yeah, yeah, yeah, competition is "good" or whatever. i instinctively fear (because it is in my nature to root for li'l underdogs that are preordained to be bloodied by roaring mechanisms) that iTunes will go the way of Netscape, bludgeoned out of extistence by the sheer we're-already-on-your-system ubiquity of Microsoft products. In fact, as Top Tech News' Elizabeth Millard cheerily, unflinchingly and unironically reports of the looming "next iteration" of the only slightly-less-clumsy-than-it-used-to-be Windows Media Player:

Mainly, its technology already is on the majority of home and business computers, and when the Windows Media Player arrives in its next iteration, the inclusion of Urge means users will not have to download additional software.

Urge, natch, is what the unholy Gates/MTV tag-team will call their new service. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Microsoft get into a little hot water with the whole bundling thing back with the whole IEv.5 v. Netscape jawn?

Whatever.

The thing that sets me atrembling most is that however Urge ends up functionality-wise, you just know it's gonna be butt fugg. I mean, look at what's come before. This has never been an attractive program, and even the doofuses who design "skins" (ew) for it are aesthetic imbeciles. this is why we can't have nice things. cuz nice things get muscled out of the market.