In this blog entry, Eric Olsen wonders how this new Microsoft technology might work:

In July Microsoft will offer technology - code named “Janus” (this article will now self-destruct) - that will bring all-you-can-eat digital music service songs to portable players.

Here’s my guess of how the DRM will work: these portable users will be forced to sync up with some sort of internet access (likely the PC where the original file transfer is occuring) once every 30 days to make sure that the license has been renewed.

Napster already allows copying files locally on the PC so that monthly subscribers can play these tracks on the PC when not connected to the internet, which is a more free situation and better than Rhapsody, but the problem is in the song selection. All the freedom in the world doesn’t matter if the song selection isn’t there. A lot of the music I enjoy listening to was only available for streaming on Rhapsody and 30 second preview on Napster (hence the reason I cancelled Napster and stayed with Rhapsody, because 30 second previews suck). If Microsoft allows me to move to my Pocket PC or other portable device these DRM protected files so long as I sync up once a month and the selection is also there, then Microsoft will quickly make a monthly subscriber out of me.