We’ve been sampling it this morning

Microsoft has at last launched its music service in the UK, after numerous delays postponed the intended July launch.

MSN music is now running in Beta form, and will allow users to log in using their existing Live ID. A select few will also be permitted to sample the new free music streaming service. We’ve been sampling it this morning, and the queuing feature works well. Best of all is the absence of adverts between streamed songs. How it will fare alongside similar services such as Spotify remains to be seen.

Microsoft hasn’t released much information about this aspect of MSN Music:

“As part of the service, free music streaming will be tested on a limited basis. MSN will be running a series of promotions on the MSN website enabling a limited number of users to gain access to this aspect of the beta.”

As well as streaming music, the site will offer access to over a million downloadable tracks from the online library. As Xbox players will be aware, the company favours a points based system of payment for gamers, which can sometimes make it difficult to work out exactly how much you’ve spent, and MSN Music will operate on a similar basis, using credits.

An individual track will cost one credit, valued at a familiar 79p. A whole album will cost 10 credits, or £7.99. What marks the service out from some of its competitors is that the downloads are free from Digital Rights Management (DRM), meaning that you can do whatever takes your fancy with the music you’ve bought including burning it to CD.

The site also offers a variety of news and music-related features as well as music videos and interviews. Our favourite so far is the feature reminiscent of Radio 4’s Desert Island Disks, where artists (Jamie Cullum’s surprisingly comprehensive one in this case) select a list of their favourite tracks to appear in a list.

From our first look at the Beta site these seem to be fairly easy to navigate, and the ready-made playlists are an interesting way to find new artists. Unlike Spotify and Last.fm, however, there’s no “artist radio” feature, and as yet there’s little in the way biographies or background information.

To take a look for yourself, visit http://downloads.music.uk.msn.com.