MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were negligible. The store utilized Microsoft's Windows Media Player application and proprietary Windows Media Format files (protected .wma files).

It started out with 1.5 million songs, but decreased to 1.1 million songs due to lagging sales and lack of real support from Microsoft.

The MSN Music store was not compatible with Microsoft's own Zune music player. As of 14 November 2006, MSN Music ceased music sales and now redirects viewers to either Zune or Real Rhapsody websites.

Microsoft acquired MongoMusic on September 13, 2000 and merged its technology.

In April 2008, Microsoft announced that the DRM servers for MSN Music would be deactivated on 2008-08-31. After this date, it was no longer possible to reauthorize purchased songs when changing computers or operating systems. They have suggested that customers back-up their music by burning it to CD.

MSN (originally: The Microsoft Network; stylized as: msn) is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.

The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its initial release in 1995. MSN was once a simple online service for Windows 95, an early experiment at interactive multimedia content on the Internet, and one of the most popular dial-up Internet service providers.

Microsoft used the MSN brand name to promote numerous popular web-based services in the late 1990s, most notably Hotmail and Messenger, before reorganizing many of them in 2005 under another brand name, Windows Live. MSN's Internet portal, MSN.com, is currently the 17th most visited domain name on the Internet.

The concept for MSN was created by the Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft, headed by Nathan Myhrvold. MSN was originally conceived as a dial-up online content provider like America Online, supplying proprietary content through an artificial folder-like interface integrated into Windows 95's Windows Explorer file management program. Categories on MSN appeared like folders in the file system.

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics.

To many people in many cultures, music is an important part of their way of life. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound." Musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez summarizes the relativist, post-modern viewpoint: "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus ... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be."

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.

Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.

Matthew Sheridan "Matt" Cardle (born 15 April 1983) is an English singer-songwriter who won the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010. He received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music by winning, and his debut single "When We Collide" was released immediately after he won. It sold 439,000 copies in its first week to become the UK Christmas number one.

Cardle was born in Southampton, Hampshire, to David and Jennifer Cardle (née Horner) on 15 April 1983. His family lived in Bristol before moving to Essex. He attended the independent Stoke College in Suffolk, then the Institute in Colchester.

In 2005 he was a member of the alternative rock / pop band Darwyn and recorded an 11 track album When You Wake and the follow-up EP Little Sunlight in 2006. In 2009, he became the frontman and guitarist of a rock band called Seven Summers. They performed live on Sue Marchant's BBC radio program on 8 December 2009 and released a self-titled album on 22 January 2010.

In 2010, Cardle auditioned for the seventh series of The X Factor, singing Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good". His mentor was Dannii Minogue, who mentored him until the final when he was announced the winner on 12 December 2010, after receiving 44.61% of the vote. Cardle received the most votes every week from week 2, being beaten only by Mary Byrne in week 1. The week after the series final, Cardle's cover of "Many of Horror," originally recorded by Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro, topped the UK Singles Chart to become the Christmas number 1 and remained there for three consecutive weeks. The song was nominated in the Best British Single category at the 2011 BRIT Awards.