The British firm EMI Group Plc, announced on Thursday that it had inked a deal with Microsoft Corp.'s Zune, to provide preloaded music videos.
Jeff Kempler, executive vice president of EMI unit Virgin Records America, told Reuters, "Apple (AAPL) has been an important partner in building the digital music market but any well-funded serious entrant has got to be good news for the artists and industry."
This is an obvious move by Microsoft (MSFT) to enter into competition with Apple's iTunes service. Sources say that there are a couple of things that the new Zune service will offer that Apple doesn't have. One is its wireless capacity; and another, is a feature that empowers users to share music between them.
Will it be enough to make significant inroads into the Apple market or will it be used as a device alongside of the iPod? What are your thoughts?
It's scheduled to enter the market later this year.
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