News.com thinks the upcoming MSN Music launch on Thursday is as much about Windows as it is about selling music.

“The big business goal here is Microsoft wants to promote the Windows format to sell more PCs and to get people to upgrade,” Directions of Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff said. “Microsoft has taken a look at what its partners have been doing over past few years, and they figured to make Windows Media work they have to have (their own store).”

But if much of the underlying focus is on supporting Microsoft’s software, the forthcoming music store is also part of a broader campaign to transform the MSN portal into a hub for multimedia content.