MSFT to Cut Price of Music to Compete with iTunes
Apple is a pretty strong force in the online music business and it looks like Microsoft is ready to play hardball; the company is considering dropping the price of the Zune Pass in order to compete with its Cupertino-based rival.
Right now, users with a Zune pass get 10 song downloads and unlimited music streaming for $14.99 per month. However, BusinessWeek reports that senior product manager Terry Farrell has said Redmond is considering slicing the price.
"It’s definitely a challenging business," Farrell is quoted as saying. It's not yet known how much Microsoft would take off the price if it does decide to lower it.
The news comes after earlier reports that the Department of Justice is investigating Apple's practices in the online music business. The company allegedly punished record labels that entered exclusive agreements with rival Amazon by withdrawing market support for certain songs.
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MSOFT sales music!? well i dont care i dont buy music
Zune Pass is already the best subscription service at that price point and now even lower? Dang, thanks MS!
seriously who will buy musics when they can download it for free from any torrent website?
Still prefer to buy a CD and rip it. I can't cope the idea of paying more for a product of lesser quality.
I get all my music from ebay. That way I can transfer it to anything and use anything to play it.
I love my zune HD and the zune pass, but I'm fairly sure that I'd prefer an android phone over a Windows phone 7... device (wow change the name ms).
Best solution? Zune app for android phones.
I guess I'll wait until this fall.
I think once my iPods become unusable (they're like 4 years old and battery life suckkkkss) I'll get a Zune HD and get a Zune Pass. Then I won't half to sync w/ our slow ass Mac Mini >.>
Still prefer to buy a CD and rip it. I can't cope the idea of paying more for a product of lesser quality.
Maybe things have changed, but the last time I bought a CD, 6 years ago, it was about 15 bucks for 8 songs. Zune Pass you get 10 MP3 downloads + unlimited DRM content. Unless CD's have become 5 bucks or something, Zune Pass sounds like a much better deal.
I use to have Zune Pass but I didn't really use it to its full extent. I always forgot to use up all my 10 mp3 download tokens. Also, I made the mistake of thinking it was like Steam. So when I reformated my HD to upgrade from Win 7 beta to the RTM, I didn't bother backing up my downloaded MP3's and ended up loosing them. Also, the Zune Software was buggy with Win 7 at the time and wouldnt correctly re-download my DRM content. So I got fed up and cancled the whole subscription. I'm sure it works properly with Win 7 now (it was just RTM at the time) and if they reduce the price I might switch back. I'm getting tired of listening to the same 10 songs being replayed on the car radio...
Maybe things have changed, but the last time I bought a CD, 6 years ago, it was about 15 bucks for 8 songs. Zune Pass you get 10 MP3 downloads + unlimited DRM content. Unless CD's have become 5 bucks or something, Zune Pass sounds like a much better deal.
He's talking about the bitrate. Why pay for a song encoded as a 128kbits/s .mp3 when you can stream that kind of quality online for FREE? At least you can rip a CD to .flac
Zunes don't have enough space (64gb max so far) for a large FLAC music collection IMHO. I am so close to getting a Zune... All I am waiting for is (hopefully) SDHC or something so I no longer have this limit...
I say do it! If they can have a 5 songs for $5 per month (like Napster), I will most likely defect to Microsoft, and since I am planning to get a WP7 Based phone, this will be perfect.
Zune Pass is already the best subscription service at that price point and now even lower? Dang, thanks MS!
hate to break it to u, but u should be thanking apple = /
As far as bit rate goes, everything I've gotten off MSN Music has been 256K -- a respectable data rate for any music lover, perhaps not the audiophile however. 320k or bust for those dudes.
$15/month and download all the songs I want... Must be offered in FLAC format. No DRM of any type.
I like variety in my music, and no way in hell am i going to pay $1/song when I want a collection of 10,000.
You guys pay for music? Why?
zune pass content has always been 320k, or at least since I've had it
The Apple 160GB iPod Classic in black and iTunes (audio player part, that's it) are really the only useful things made. iPhone is better, but shit everyone knows once you dropped that thing you're screwed.
Microsoft should cooperate with Google Droid and create something that will actually sells.. and include the Zune Pass of course
How about bringing the Zune HD and Zune store outside of the USA? It would be nice if the iTunes store prices were lower here, since they are far, far higher than in the USA.
Unless CD's have become 5 bucks or something, Zune Pass sounds like a much better deal.
Only if "better" doesn't take into account sound quality. Some people can't stand crappy bitrates.
Only if "better" doesn't take into account sound quality. Some people can't stand crappy bitrates.
I doubt you could tell the difference between raw CD audio and 320kbps WMA, encoded from the same source. If you're comparing to 128kbps MP3s, yeah I'd say the difference is pretty obvious.
I doubt you could tell the difference between raw CD audio and 320kbps WMA, encoded from the same source.
No, I can't. But some people are picky and can tell the difference. It's like the 60FPS vs 120FPS argument.