Since I last wrote about MSN Radio (October 2004), changes have been made which force me to drop MSN Radio from my list of recommended Internet music services. MSN Radio Plus used to offer over 200 pre-programmed radio stations; now it offers around 50. The free version of the service used to offer around 50 such stations; now it offers 12. The interesting array of thematic and mood oriented stations are gone.
The difference has been made up with links to external radio stations not produced by MSN. Microsoft, it seems, is more content to point to other peoples' radio offerings (or perhaps simply needed to cut costs). The resulting mix of stations is less well-organized and blurs the distinction between MSN and non-MSN stations.
MSN has also dropped their innovative "SoundsLike" feature, which let listeners generate playlists and stations which "sounded like" a given song, album, or artist. In its place they are offering "Fan Favorites," stations which only let you generate playlists based on a given artist.
The news isn't all bad. You can now buy tracks using the MSN Music Store. All Music Guide album reviews and artist bios are still available, and you can still skip and pause songs (at least on the stations that really are MSN Radio stations). A new feature has been added called "City Sounds," in which Microsoft has created playlists to mimic the playlists of local radio stations around the country (1154 of them as of this writing). The idea is to provide the "local" music minus the ads, traffic info, and "DJ chatter." There's only one problem. Most of these local radio stations are owned by huge media companies which squeezed the "local" out of local radio a long time ago.
The Bottom Line: MSN Radio is a shadow of its former self. People looking for an Internet radio service should consider Live365 or LAUNCHcast instead (both of which, ironically enough, can now be accessed from within Windows Media Player 10).
—Andy Breeding
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