Microsoft to deal in discount music

Microsoft announced a deal with Europe's biggest digital music outfit, OD2, to form the continent's first major a la carte online download service.

The alliance comes on the heels of the EU's demands to the company to stop abusing its market dominance to distribute software, singling out the popular Windows Media Player that allows computer users to play songs and view films.

From today, users with Microsoft's Windows Media Player version 9 can purchase individual music tracks for €0.99 or stg0.75 from OD2's library of over 200,000 songs, a 25% discount from most other European subscription services, the companies said.

This is the first time European consumers can buy song downloads off the internet for less than a euro, and without requiring a monthly subscription, bringing the fee in line with the popular Apple Computer Tunes service, not yet available in Europe.

Microsoft has been a longtime technology partner of Britain's OD2, the only company in Europe to have secured licensing deals with each of the five major recording labels - Sony Music, BMG, Warner Music, Universal Music and EMI.