News broke in July that the titan was planning a free music service, and that it would adorn our PCs at the end of July. It’s now the 1st of August and we’re still waiting

Oh dear! Looks like it might not be around for some time, if this comment is anything to go by:

A Microsoft spokesperson noted “In the coming months, MSN [Microsoft’s news and entertainment portal] is planning a new music service in beta via its [MSN] Music channel in the UK. At this stage we won’t be confirming the details behind this but more information will be available soon and will be communicated in due course.”

That sounds like a project that’s not even near completion. All begs the question: why did they say it would be out in a month?

T3 themselves point out that Microsoft’s iPod killer, Zune, took ages (and ages) to eventually surface. And didn’t kill the iPod. Not even a dead leg.

Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, Microsoft’s news and entertainment portal, told The Telegraph exclusively: “Music is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently.

“It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work.”

Spotify users can stream music for free in exchange for listening to around a minute of advertising every half hour but for £9.99 a month, the ads will be turned off. It is thought Microsoft’s offering will be ad-supported too as well as having a paid-for premium service.

Mr Bale added: “We are looking at how other similar businesses have structured their business models and trying to figure out what will work best for both consumer and Mircosoft.”

Interesting. Trust Microsoft to make something as exciting as streaming music sound so very dull.