Late last week, America Online (AOL) purchased the MusicNow digital music service from Circuit City, saving the retailer from the embarrassment of owning a complete dud. AOL now ostensibly competes with Apple iTunes, Napster, RealNetworks Rhapsody, and MSN Music, but let's face it, none of those other services actually competes with iTunes at all. AOL allegedly paid $25 million for MusicNow, which isn't too shabby (especially when you compare the figure with the $4.2 billion it paid for Netscape in 1998, another example of AOL trying to compete in a market that's already locked up). Oddly enough, AOL has a partnership with Apple for iTunes, and the company says that partnership will continue. Makes sense
