MTV Networks has unveiled plans to launch a digital-music service dubbed URGE [ tickets ], which the company has designed and developed with help from Microsoft.

According to a joint press release the two companies issued this week, URGE "will provide an immersive music experience and will be integrated into a forthcoming version of the Microsoft Windows Media Player."

When launched in 2006, the service will offer more than 2 million songs from the major labels and thousands of independent labels, and will encompass music from all genres, as well as exclusive MTV Networks programming and original content.

URGE has "garnered early support" from Sony BMG North American chairman and CEO Clive Davis, Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Lyor Cohen, and musical artists Alicia Keys, Coldplay's Chris Martin and Gretchen Wilson, according to MTV Networks' announcement.

"By combining our expertise in digital media with the music leadership and marketing savvy of MTV Networks, we have created a powerful and unique way to experience music," Blair Westlake, corporate vice president of the Media/Entertainment and Technology Convergence Group at Microsoft, said in a statement. "This landmark collaboration will bring innovative new experiences to millions of music fans."

"Beyond providing a simple transactional service, URGE will provide a musical playground where fans can experiment, customize, discover and download new music," added Jason Hirschhorn, MTV Networks' chief digital officer.

When launched, URGE will receive exposure via all of MTV Networks' broadcast outlets--including its MTV-branded channels, VH1 and CMT--and by virtue of its integration with Windows Media Player, which Microsoft bundles with its Windows operating system. About 90% of all computer users are on Windows-based systems.

Those factors will likely make the service a formidable competitor for Apple's iTunes Music Store, which currently enjoys about a 75-percent market share of all digital-music sales. However, URGE may be hampered by the fact that it will not be compatible with Apple Computers and, more significantly, Apple's iPod digital-music player, which makes up the lion's share of all digital-music-player sales.