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Taking MTV's URGE and WMP 11 For a Test Drive

News Type: Event — Mon May 15, 2006 2:50 PM EDT

Front page of the rock genre on MTV's new online music service, URGE.

One of the many music videos available to watch commercial free (for now) courtesy of MTV Networks and it's partners (VH1 and CMT)

Library view in Windows Media Player 11 sorted by artist. Albums are automatically seperated and arranged.

Now Playing view in Windows Media Player 11, accompanied by the URGE Information Pane, displaying Artist, Track, and Album.

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MTV's new online music and video store, URGE, will be released to the public on Wednesday, but being the impatient guy I am, I got ahold of a copy of Windows Media Player 11 and decided take WMP 11 and URGE for a spin myself, before being released to the public.

During the installation of WMP 11, URGE is setup as your online music store by default. By clicking on URGE from the menu bar you are brought to the store's front page. On the right hand side of the page is "Today on URGE," music news and features from MTV.com, VH1.com, and CMT.com – Viacom's owned and operated music channels.

Below the listings of featured albums and top songs, you are offered to explore URGE by clicking on one of many genres. These genre pages are similar to the front page, with more specific albums, songs, and playlists being featured – the "Today on URGE" column also follows you to the genre pages.

At the top of URGE is an impressive search bar that will search the store as you type, returning results on artists, albums, and songs. I type in one of my favorite bands, Tenacious D, and lo and behold, up comes KG and JB. Double-clicking on the D brings splits up the screen with the artist info on the top and the album and track listings on the bottom – all of the songs are for sale (at 0.99 cents) except for the last track – which is unavailable and greyed out.

So far, the service seems very similar to iTunes. However, one big difference comes next. One of the track listings on the page I have selected has a video icon next to it for the song "Tribute." Clicking on the icon immediately (i.e. no commercials) brings up a high-quality copy of the music video for Tribute, courtesy of VH1. Double-clicking the video enlarges it to full screen – where the quality is still quite good. My face is promptly melted off thanks to my D fix.

If just music is your game, clicking on any of the songs for sale will start playing a high quality (128kbps) 30-second clip of your song.

In addition, URGE also offers several internet radio stations sorted by genre, most are for subscription users only, however there are several channels available for free.

The interface of URGE blends in almost seamlessly with the rest of WMP 11. During the installation your media library will be automatically imported. While the layout can be changed, by default your library is sorted by album art and artist. While this provides for a sleek look, I have to scroll endlessly to reach an artist in my large music library. Luckily, the live search works just the same for your music library as it does for URGE, making a complex libraries a lot easier to navigate through.

To sum it up, I really had my doubts about URGE as well as Windows Media Player 11, however, after playing with both for about an hour, I've got to say I'm honestly impressed – and think the service could really give iTunes a run for its money, at least for Windows users - sorry guys, this little gem won't work on a Mac. It will be interesting to see how URGE fares with the juggernaut f MTV Networks behind it, but it appears they have entered a formidable opponent into the online music world, albeit a little late.

Better late than never, though.

URGE launches May 17th, 2006

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{"commentId":125731,"authorDomain":"spring"}
Corey Spring

Also, I forgot to note, WMP 11 will also be released on Wednesday.

{"commentId":125731,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"spring"}
    Reply#1 - Mon May 15, 2006 7:54 PM EDT
    {"commentId":125779,"authorDomain":"jaketracey"}
    Jake Tracey

    Thanks for the rundown. It seems the Microsoft has really picked up it's game in so many aspects over the past few months - Windows Live, new Office design, Vista, WMP11, XBOX Live... does URGE use your Passport login, or do you need to create a new account?

    {"commentId":125779,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"jaketracey"}
      Reply#2 - Mon May 15, 2006 8:53 PM EDT
      {"commentId":125808,"authorDomain":"msjgriffiths"}
      msjgriffiths

      You need to create a new account.

      A bit of a shame...

      {"commentId":125808,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"msjgriffiths"}
        #2.1 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:24 PM EDT
        {"commentId":125875,"authorDomain":"jaketracey"}
        Jake Tracey

        Uh, ok :)

        {"commentId":125875,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"jaketracey"}
          #2.2 - Mon May 15, 2006 10:37 PM EDT
          Reply
          {"commentId":125818,"authorDomain":"maaz"}
          Maaz

          Since I reformatted I haven't updated to even Windows Media Player 10. The reason is that it seems the newer versions of all of the microsoft programs seem to be getting really slow and resource taking. Is WMP 11 like that too, or is it smooth?

          {"commentId":125818,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"maaz"}
            Reply#3 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:38 PM EDT
            {"commentId":125819,"authorDomain":"maaz"}
            Maaz

            I have a 3.2ghz processor with 1 gig of pc3200 ram.

            {"commentId":125819,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"maaz"}
              #3.1 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:38 PM EDT
              {"commentId":125859,"authorDomain":"spring"}
              Corey Spring

              You should be fine, but in true MS fashion, the previous version does run faster. I'm using a 2100+ AMD Sempron on my laptop with 512mb of pc3200 - and it runs fine, so you should be good as well.

              {"commentId":125859,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"spring"}
              • 1 vote
              #3.2 - Mon May 15, 2006 10:19 PM EDT
              Reply
              {"commentId":125828,"authorDomain":"lauone"}
              lauone

              I have to admit, I downloaded WM11 when it was leaked on the weekend. I'm impressed. I like the look, and I really like the search feature and its thumbnail views of movies and albums.

              What really did it for me was that it synced my music and videos to my PocketPC with no issues at all. That's a first!.

              As far as URGE goes, I played with it for about an hour... Then I spent an hour removing all references of it from my registry and temp directory's. It took awhile, But URGE is now gone, and WM11 looks a lot better without the URGE logo everywhere.

              WM11 seems to be a step in the right direction.

              {"commentId":125828,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"lauone"}
                Reply#4 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:47 PM EDT
                {"commentId":125830,"authorDomain":"lauone"}
                lauone

                My last post didn't format correctly... weird...

                {"commentId":125830,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"lauone"}
                  #4.1 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:48 PM EDT
                  {"commentId":477065,"authorDomain":"marktippin"}
                  MTippin

                  Hey - I was building a new PC and after SP2 was installed, I had windows update grab all the updates and install them - unbeknownst to me this included WMP11. I like *most* of the features - but DO NOT WANT URGE. I don't want the icon, I don't want the menu item, I don't want to even know it was ever there.

                  Can you share your techniques for ousting all instances of URGE from a machine?

                  Thank you!

                  {"commentId":477065,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"marktippin"}
                    #4.2 - Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:52 PM EST
                    Reply
                    {"commentId":125841,"authorDomain":"dineth"}
                    dineth

                    Hmmm, I would have expected WMP interface to look at least a bit more different. Somehow, I seem to like the MP10 more than the upcoming one! Doesn't seem like an improvement.
                    Oh well, I could be wrong. I'll wait till Wed.

                    {"commentId":125841,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"dineth"}
                      Reply#5 - Mon May 15, 2006 9:56 PM EDT
                      {"commentId":125930,"authorDomain":"irelan"}
                      Brian Irelan

                      I really love this service and I'm seriously considering the $15/mo for their portable player service.

                      Only real problem I have with it is it's a bit sluggish but hopefully it'll get worked out when the final version is released.

                      {"commentId":125930,"threadId":"7853","contentId":"197550","authorDomain":"irelan"}
                        Reply#6 - Mon May 15, 2006 11:45 PM EDT
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