The battle for digital-music supremacy officially began today with a song from NYC antifolk singer Regina Specktor.

Microsoft finally confirmed today its plans to launch its own digital-music project, dubbed Zune, with a company statement and a flash-animation teaser site featuring the song "Us" by Spektor. The line of would-be iPod/iTunes killers has been the worst-kept secret throughout the digital music world, but Microsoft had so far declined to comment on the rumors of its move to take on the Apple digital-music behemoth.

"Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune," Microsoft GM of marketing Chris Stephenson said in a statement. "Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together."

The statement and teaser site are Microsoft's first public acknowledgements that it has tired of seeing its device partners (Samsung, Creative, iRiver) and download-store partners (Napster, Rhapsody) get clobbered in market share by iPod and iTunes, respectively.

As previously reported, the first Zune-branded digital audio player is said to have Wi-Fi capability--the ability to transfer music from a PC to a device without a cable--a function that would give the device a step up on the current line of iPods. A Microsoft spokesman today declined to comment on the Wi-Fi functionality of the player but did say that it is something the company "is exploring."

The player will hit the US market first and is expected to reach stores well in advance of the holiday shopping season, although an exact release date has not been announced.

A Microsoft rep declined to comment on the player's video and gaming capabilities, saying, "While we do not have specific details to provide, the primary focus of Zune is to deliver great music and entertainment experiences."

The venture is also likely to include a digital-music download store, although it is unclear if the service would work in tandem or separately from Urge, the service Microsoft and MTV launched in May.

Microsoft's penchant for such teaser sites is notorious: Earlier this year, its Project Origami site helped build hype for its line of "Ultra-Mobile" PCs. In 2005, it used a series of mysterious games on ourcolony.net to slowly unveil its Xbox 360 game console. (Microsoft has since sold the ourcolony.net URL to a Florida real-estate developer.)