“Microsoft will announce the final version of its Windows Media 10 software today when it launches Windows XP Media Center 2005.

Central to the announcement is Windows Media Player 10, which integrates MS’ latest DRM technology, ‘Janus’, and, in a bid to appear to be nice to rivals, will include links to other online music stores based on WM 10, not just MS’ own, in the player’s ‘Digital Media Mall’.

WMP 10 was released in September 2004 as a public ‘beta’ version. Since then, Napster and Virgin Digital have launched WM 10-based music subscription services, which finally allow subscribed content to be copied to compatible portable music players, something impossible with WM 9. Napster, for one, currently charges a premium for this feature, which it offers as its Napster to Go service.”

[Original Article]

I was one of the many who downloaded the ‘beta’ version in September and it made itself right at home and hasn’t caused a peep of trouble in any way that I can see. In fact, I would have to call that release RC-Final and about as ready to go gold as you can get. It’s also a lot faster to play downloaded or streaming content (on my system).

What’s worth it? Well, the much cleaner and easier to use interface is a good reason all by itself. I guess the only downside to the software is the inclusion of Yet-Another-Digital-Rights-Management-Package (YADRUMP?). Considering the amount of money spent on all these ways of preventing piracy, it might have been cheaper to skip the whole thing.