Microsoft: Zune Pass users keep 10 songs a month, forever

[BigBoy]

Very cool... Zune Pass users (who can pay $15 a month and have access to majority of content on Zune Marketplace) - can starting yesterday, decide which 10 songs a month they want to keep forever. Meaning - even if they end their Zune Pass subscription, they get to keep the music.

Microsoft has just announced that, beginning today, Zune Pass users will be able to select ten tracks per month to keep forever (and ever, and ever), and the $14.99 monthly subscription rate isn't headed up. Agreements have been miraculously nailed down between Microsoft and EMI Music, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, not to mention a number of independent distributors.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/19/microso...onth-forever-a/

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27814766

So this basically means about one CD a month free to keep. :)

[capr]

not free, it's still costing you $15 a month. i would think of the songs costing your money and your subscription being free.

[tsupersonic]

I think this is pretty cool. Way to go MS, the Zune platform is really coming along well.

[Fonze]

not free, it's still costing you $15 a month. i would think of the songs costing your money and your subscription being free.

Since they are giving away 10 songs a month that you can keep forever, they are giving you the equivalent of $10 worth of music . So, you are essentially paying $5 a month to listen to the entire catalog of music on the Zune marketplace, and paying the other $10 for 10 songs you probably would want to buy anyway. I have been buying CDs for albums that I listen to frequently enough to want to keep, so for me this is a great deal.

[WelshBluebird]

Just get a move on and release it in the UK!!

[coresx]

Just get a move on and release it in the UK!!

Ditto. I would buy one. The software seems cool and way better than iTunes that I despise installing on my computer. Had an iPod, been there done that, got the t-shirt. I want a Zune!

I hope their 3rd Gen Zune makes it to Europe. Perhaps they are sorting all license issues to make it massive from the get go. You've seen how bad they are with content on Xbox Live. Zune can not afford to stumble and I think that's the major reason it hasn't released outside of the US and Canada yet. Get it right first. Fail and it's over.

[Sean B. Veteran]

I'll be happy when the day comes where all music downloaded from the Marketplace is DRM-free :).

[NateB1]

Nice. Oh, and don't forget that the free 10 tracks are DRM free .mp3s :D

I'll be happy when the day comes where all music downloaded from the Marketplace is DRM-free :).

As of today, 90% of the songs in the Marketplace *are* DRM free. :D

[DigitalE]

This is very nice.

Too bad iTunes doesn't have anything like this :whistle:

[Crazysah]

This is very nice.

Too bad iTunes doesn't have anything like this :whistle:

Yeah. iTunes would rock then!

[spenser.d]

Yeah I was going to post about this after I got the email from MS yesterday saying this. Pretty cool. I used up a 14 day trial of the Zune Pass and, while impressed, I didn't continue it because I'm not sure I want to spend the $15 a month. But this new "keep 10" is a sweet deal that might pull me back in.

I do still miss my iPod Touch, but I definitely don't miss iTunes. The Zune software and marketplace just blows it out of the water.

Microsoft has a new TV Spot for the Zune too that I think is pretty cool, showcasing mixview.

-Spenser