The Ignition program will expose emerging artists to the broad Microsoft audience for a month, with the first participating band being Maximo Park from the UK. The band's first single will be offered as a free exclusive download on Zune, a free music video for download on Xbox Live, and as a streaming video on MSN.

According to Reuters, Microsoft is "demanding exclusive content and hands-on participation from the artists involved." Christina Calio, Microsoft's director of music marketing, said, "We don't want the same thing that is going out on MTV."

Ignition's success will depend in large part on the quality of the acts it promotes. Microsoft is hoping to be a filter for its audience, something MySpace, for instance, currently lacks.
But it's the lack of a filter that many MySpace users enjoy. The ability to "discover" music and recommend it to friends is one of the success stories of the online social networking movement. Microsoft is, in essence, attempting to modernize the MTV model and distribute it over a range of services with which few companies can compete.

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