Urges

Believe it or not, you're probably better off as a consumer going with Microsoft's Urge music service over iTunes. Heresy, I know, but let me explain...

Apple makes virtually no money on iTunes. In fact, virtually nobody makes money on music services because consumers generally aren't willing to pay that much for individual songs, and what they will pay is pretty much exactly what the RIAA is willing to sell the licenses for. The reason, then, that Apple even bothers with iTunes is one reason and one reason only: to sell iPods. And guess what? If iTunes exists solely to support iPod sales, do you think Apple will ever open up their DRM-protected audio format to other music players? Nope!

In contrast, Microsoft's Urge will undoubtedly be supported by Windows Mobile and Windows media licenses, which means that Microsoft has an incentive to have as many different devices be able to access the service as possible. So, in fact, you'll (probably) have more options with Urge than you will with iTunes. Fancy that.

But yes, I know...Microsoft is evil, Apple only does things that are pure and true, blah blah blah. Do you people have any idea the premiums Apple gets on their hardware? It's ridiculous, and it's totally unjustifiable by anything but zealotry.