Microsoft changes Zune subscription plan
With fewer consumers than hoped for signing up for all-you-can-eat music subscriptions, Microsoft and the record industry are trying to make the option more appealing. As of Wednesday, those who pay for the $14.95 a month Zune Pass subscription will start being able to permanently keep 10 tracks a month. The subscription already allows unlimited music downloads, but users have the ability to listen to the music only so long as they are subscribers.
Under the new plan, Zune Pass members will essentially get $10 worth of music to own each month, along with whatever subscription content they download. The move comes as much of the consumer enthusiasm in the digital music industry has been for music that is sold free of DRM (digital rights management) protections. Both Microsoft and music industry executives acknowledge that the uptake for subscriptions has not been what they’d hoped. For the record industry, subscription music represents an important potential revenue stream at a time where traditional music sales have continued to decline far faster than digital downloads have grown.
Source: Cnet
Comments(20)
zune still sucks.
and i own one. guess thats why it updated this morning.
i’m a huge fan of listening music on the go, buying music and supporting artists etc. so why is it that i’m still not the least interested in subscribing to plans such as this?
i have the money and i am willing to pay for music, and this is the best they can come up with? some dumb subscription plan? F this, i’d rather invest my money in getting a faster internet connection, premium rapidshare account, harddisks, new hi-fi set etc.
monthly Zune account – $15
monthly rapidshare account – $5
ooh. Tough decision.
Who on earth wants to have to pay out every month to rent their music. Of course the music industry likes it because you have to keep paying again and again for the stuff you’er not even listening to anymore.
Surprise, surprise, customers don’t like it and don’t buy it.
Well that would be the music industry we know and love…continuing to do everything in their power to destroy themselves.
monthly Zune account – $15 (has a limit)
monthly rapidshare account – $5 (has a limit)
monthly torrent cost – $0 (has NO limit)
Yeah, very though decision. Of you’re a moron that is…
If I download it, I should own it. So Zune can go to hell with their DRM and ‘lending out’ songs.
monthly Zune account – $15 (has a limit)
monthly rapidshare account – $5 (has a limit)
monthly torrent cost – $0 (has NO limit)
Stealing peoples ipods/zunes and selling them on craigslist – +$50ea. (no limit)
Perhaps sometime you will understand why paying a small amount to the artists is better than completely free. But as long as you are just a stupid little kids just keep downloading, don’t even bother trying to understand it.
8
Like you’ve never downloaded any MP3’s. Get off your damn high horse.
The paying for isn’t the issue – the renting of music is.
I can’t believe anyone pays for this, stupidest.idea.ever.
I’m curious how many people here actually download music, accumulate gig’s of music and yet STILL listen to ALL OF IT. I downloaded the Metallica album and within two weeks I was bored of it. I think having unlimited downloads for a subscription fee is a great idea. Paying $15 for a cd is ridiculous because that disc used up resources, get trashed and become boring over a small time. People need to wake up that nothing lasts for ever so why not jump into the now and take advantage of this? Not everyone out there believes that everything on the internet should be free, it’s just the sad state of today’s kids that think this is so.
Good music never dies. If the music is good you’ll eventually listen to it again. And if you take care of it well, it can become an influence to your offspring too. Do like I do: Download, Try, Buy Vynil.
@Steve
well arent u an avid supporter of zune/microsoft. did it occur to u that u also might be an idiot?
“People need to wake up that nothing lasts for ever so why not jump into the now and take advantage of this?” I’ve woken up a long time ago my friend, it’s u who i’m worried about!
you can still download tons of gigs of music and never listen to any of it, what is so horrible about that? how does listening to every song or not make a difference here? it’s my damn business what i want to put on my harddisks and what i do wit my files.
if u were sick of ur metallica album (which, as u said, u downloaded, u hypocrite), then why not just delete it?
@ Klepto, the maniac
it’s ppl like you why the RIAA wash together downloaders and pity thieves. your gipsy attitude is lamer the the riaa’s best lawyer’s offense.
A use for a Zune, even those brown faeces stained ones:-
http://hideapod.com/
You kids don’t know how good you have it. There was a time not long ago when you went to a record store and bought one or 2 albums a month. You would cherish those albums and listen to them for years.
Today, music isn’t respected. It is too easily obtained and discarded for the next new thing.
Downloading did not kill the music industry but the immediacy of the internet has made sure that there will be no more musicians with long careers, only one hit wonders…..
That’s true, and also true for films as well…here’s the problem…the music industry has for a long time operated like a corrupt bank and marketing company for musicians – one which gets to dictate to new artists how they will repay their loans and how their music will be produced and marketed. Often to the detriment of the artist.
The digital domain is slowly becoming the great leveller, eventually I hope we will rediscover the value of the arts, but first the scumbags and profiteers will need to be wiped off. That would include lawyers and RIAA amongst all the other vermin who have turned it into the cesspit it is.
There’s a lot of talent out there which never gets to access that marketing machine..
Get this through their heads… PEOPLE WILL NOT PAY FOR MUSIC… concerts, yes; music, no.
I download music and I will not pay for it as long as record labels are involved. Instead I buy band shirts and try to get out to concerts. That’s the best way I can find to support the artists I like.
Why is the picture of the Zune 30 which is outdated and not produced anymore? Why not post the new zunes, the good looking ones that are now known as being better than iPods?
I can’t believe how poor everyone here is.
I come here to download movies because I live in Yukon, there’s no movie cinemas here, but if I could pay for it I would.
It’s understandable to download things once and awhile, but a select few of you ruin it for everyone else by constantly grabbing anything and everything just for the hell of it.