Microsoft showed up at the music download party on Wednesday with a music store wrapped around a new version of the Windows Media Player (WMP).

The company's preview release of MSN Music has 500,000 tracks, with plans to reach the industry standard 1 million tracks in coming weeks. Songs will cost users 99 cents each, and most full-length albums will cost $9.99.

Digital rights management technology embedded on the music files allow listeners to hear downloaded songs on up to five computers. They can burn a playlist of songs to a CD up to seven times, with unlimited rights for transferring songs to portable audio devices.

The Microsoft store, which goes head-to-head with similar offerings from Apple Computer RealNetworks , Napster (formerly Roxio) and Wal-mart, will allow songs to be transferred to some 70 portable gadgets, including flash-memory devices, hard-drive devices and the new Portable Media Center . The new service will also support Media Center Edition PCs, which allows music playback in a living room setting.

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