Musicmatch has put the finishing touches on Musicmatch Jukebox 9.0 and launched what it lauds as the world's first "on-demand" all-in-one jukebox. The software delivers on-demand access to subscribers with a library of 650,000 songs.

Added features permit users to share tracks and playlists with friends, discover new artists, access their On-Demand library remotely from any PC, and offer the gift of music to friends and loved ones.

When customers buy CDs and cassettes, they often share their albums with others. This simple concept was the impetus behind Musicmatch's "send to a friend feature" which permits users to share individual songs that can be listened to up to three times even when the listener is not a Musicmatch subscriber.

Borrowing from a feature that is already available in iTunes, the service's playlists can also be made public; however, Musicmatch goes a step further and will contact its subscribers with daily recommended playlists and artists based on what other listeners are playing.

Even with $650,000 USD worth of music, a library is no good without an effective search mechanism - so Musicmatch has drawn up a map. The "map" produced by the jukebox's "discovery engine" is the aggregate result of billions of play events and allows users to browse up to 100 of the most related artists to nearly every single performer. Music available from individual artists is sorted by popularity.

When finding music is no longer the issue, the last roadblock on the digital media highway is finding the best way to market music to would-be customers.

Even though Musicmatch has adopted a subscription-based business model, it has not shuttered the Musicmatch Music Store which features more than 700,000 songs for download at 99 cents each. In contrast, On-Demand offers access to 650,000 songs per month at a starting price of $7.95 USD per month.

Apple's iTunes Music Store, the market leader, is the mark of success in the business of legal music downloads and offers an ala cart pricing model. Thus far, iTunes has surpassed 100 million downloads; nonetheless, Jupiter Media Vice President and Senior Analyst David Card predicted that the early momentum for downloads will eventually be passed by subscriptions, like Musicmatch's On-Demand, somewhere in the 2007-2008 timeframe.

Shedding light on the market's shift toward subscription pricing, Card's July 2004 report, "The Outlook for Online Music," points out that profitability has eluded stores selling individual downloads at the 99 cent sweet spot. Card's findings also revealed that the installed music player base in the US will soon reach critical mass, rising from 11.3 million in 2004 to 26.1 million in 2006. What's more, a single customer may own multiple players.

For portability's sake, the Musicmatch service can be accessed remotely from any PC. Access does not vary from machine to machine; a user's on-demand music libraries, saved playlists and personalization preferences always remain consistent.

Other enhancements to the software are an improved installation process, clearer and simpler navigation of the user interface, an option to "view by album art," and the ability to process gift certificates and allowances.

"Music services are evolving from their complex roots of ripping, burning, and managing purchased and pilfered media locally into simple on-demand services where you gain legal access to the entire music library for a low fee," said Enderle Group Principal Analyst Rob Enderle.

Enderle continued, "Enhancements will now focus on personalization, discovery and portability going forward. With this announcement, Musicmatch is once again setting the pace for the next generation of on-demand, increasingly personalized, multimedia providers."

There is no doubt that Musicmatch agrees with Enderle's summation. "You just have to try 9.0 out," a visibly excited Musicmatch executive told BetaNews during this week's Jupiter Plug.IN conference and exposition.

Musicmatch 9.0 is available now and may be downloaded from FileForum.