Microsoft launched its new music retail store last night, showing it to be only the second company, after Apple Computer, to get all the major music publishers to agree to common terms for a web retail effort. The store - positioned by Microsoft executive statements to the press as being an alternative to the proprietary formats used in Apple's iTunes store - works only on the software giant's Internet Explorer browser.

PaidContent.org has a nice run-down of various takes on the new store. [Permalink unavailable due to PaidContent's current upgrading of its Moveable Type blog engine.]

Macintosh computer users will find that their version of Internet Explorer will not work with the stores purchasing functions. The Windows Media format the store uses for the music files works on almost all PCs, but Microsoft has yet to produce a Windows Media player that properly plays sound on Apple computers and those using some alternative operating systems.