After a prolonged wait, MTV is finally ready to launch its online music service, Urge, as a public beta on Wednesday. The service is designed to compete with the iTunes Music Store (iTMS), and will offer some exclusive MTV content in its 2 million available tracks. According to the New York Times, Urge is a subscription-based service, like Napster and RealNetworks, and also a purchase and download service like the iTMS.

URGE has the brand familiarity of MTV, but it does it does not offer Macintosh or iPod support - limitations that are problems for other iTMS competitors. It also relies on the latest version of Windows Media Player from Microsoft, firmly solidifying its position as a non-Apple compatible service.

Listening to music on a Windows-based PC will cost US$9.95 a month. To download music to a portable MP3 player as well, you'll pay $14.95 a month. Songs can be purchased and downloaded for $0.99 each.

Urge will offer 500 preset music playlists, 130 Internet radio stations, and streaming videos. MTV plans to add video purchases later.

In an interview with Playlist, MTV confirmed that the Urge service, along with its reliance on Microsoft's DRM technology, won't change its relationship with Apple. MTV's Chief Digital Officer, Jason Hirschhorn, commented "We are a pure content company. We will still work with iTunes and Apple, but we are really proud of what we have accomplished with Microsoft."

Analysts see Urge as a potential treat to Apple's iTMS, but MTV sees it as a complementary service. Mr. Hirschhorn's responded to analysts comments with "It's not about trying to get people away from iTunes, for us it's about talking to the 95 percent of people that aren't buying online music yet."