Microsoft targets music-swapping teens
20-02-2003
by Andrew McLindon

Microsoft is to begin testing a new peer-to-peer messaging program aimed at the 13- to 24-year-old bracket.

The program, called "Threedegrees," creates peer-to-peer social groups where members of "Net Gen" (those who grew up using the Internet) can chat, share photos and listen to music, according to a report in Newsweek.

Threedegrees represent a major departure for Microsoft. Traditionally, Microsoft starts with a technology and then creates products around it. With Threedegrees, the needs and attitudes of its customers have shaped what software it will produce, with the technology coming later.

Threedegrees allows users to form or join an unlimited amount of groups of ten. The members of these groups can then participate in the same instant messages. For instance, if one person sends an animation to the group it can be viewed by all its members.

Microsoft though is banking on the ability of groups to listen to music from a common playlist to be one of the program's most popular features. Musicmix allows individual group members to add songs to a playlist and everyone in the group can then listen to the tune being played and discuss it.

The software giant has avoided the legal problems that have dogged peer-to-peer music listening by limiting the playlist to 60 songs and ensuring that songs will not play unless the original owner is participating. The music is also played from a person's hard-drive and is not actually swapped.

What also makes Threedegrees different is the way it has been developed. A Microsoft team of 12 recent college graduates, led by 33-year old business development manager, Tammy Savage, have been looking at how young people use the Internet. The researchers discovered that for them the Internet is a social tool and so produced a program that matched its customers' priorities -- "hanging out with their friends and having fun."

A beta version of Threedegrees will be available for free from next week. Although it will not initially generate any revenue for Microsoft, Threedegrees is regarded as valuable by the company because it may entice customers away from its instant messaging rival, AOL, and may provide it with insights into advanced peer-to-peer messaging technologies.