[michaelt]

With products like Windows, there's a chance that the desktop background, the startup chime and suchlike will end up as iconic as the Coca-Cola logo.

The designers would have told the CEO that this is going to be seen by 100x more people than a Superbowl ad spot, and 100x as many times per person too. So getting the perfect image/sound made for the cost of a single superbowl ad is a great deal.

Of course, whether they've succeeded at producing the perfect image is another matter.

The Windows 95 startup chime was composed by Brian Eno, so MS are used to paying for this stuff.