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Microsoft Kills Off Zune Music Service (networkworld.com)
alphadogg writes: It's one of those "You mean it was still alive?" moments: Microsoft today officially has killed off its Zune music streaming and download service. The company notified users in September that Zune services would be retired on Nov. 15. Microsoft has been phasing out its Zune brand for some time now, with Zune music service being morphed into Xbox music and then Groove music. Devices were discontinued in 2011.
"And we listen to al our music on the most wonderful device created; the Zune. Zune! Zune! Zune!" - The Simpsons S24E02
are not sure where their Zune currently is.
Wow, MS is really modelling itself after Google.
How can you trust these online services? One of the biggest IT related companies was behind this service, yet they pull the plug. This is not some service that you only use as long as you need it for your project. It is a service that replaces the old school 'buy a record, and keep forever' type of consumption goods. What when you want to throw a party with a couple of good friends within a decade or two and say "do you remember this song?" followed by a silence when you want to start that old song because the service no longer exists?
For now iTunes seems to work. Steam seems to work. The cloud for files is only used as an online backup (in my case), so I'm safe there too. Steam is in fact a service that let many games evolve to newer and better platforms. Some old games didn't work anymore on newer operating systems, but I've found out that some of them now even work on Linux and Mac. But it is just a matter of time before they pull the plug.
I still don't trust iTunes, although I only buy music through iTunes. It is just way too easy: What's this song, click buy, and you 'own' the song. I always sync the iTunes library to my main Linux desktop and hope I can safe my music collection this way, so I can throw a party when I'm 55, and do the shuffle on that old school drum'n bass tune I still have on iTunes in 2030 (and probably end up in hospital, in my mind I'm still 21 years old, but my body doesn't seem to follow my mind).
Google is always killing off projects! I... wait, nevermind.
But as long as the software itself still works for me to put musics on my Zune, I don't care. Who the hell ever bought anything off the Zune Music store anyway, I just put on some mp3 I got elsewhere.
to know how many users they had. In addition to Ballmer.
If you've been a honest customer and actually purchased music from the Zune Marketplace store, it most definitely has DRM. And after the service is shut down, your music collection will be rendered useless and you won't be able to play it again.
From TFA:
Said nobody, ever.
Continuing support is expensive, but it's good for your reputation, especially with business customers.
Too zune!
Is Satya Nadella the Zune of CEOs?
from a purely hardware perspective, i'll allow it
the Zune was made to take full advantage of all digital media has to offer...particularly video
granted, with enough effort you can get the same functionality on an ipod, but still the hardware of the Zune is solid
of course M$ ruined it, as they do with any good idea, but i can see why a person would really find one useful
Thank you Dave Raggett
.
I wonder how that dude with the Zune tattoo on his arm feels nowadays....
Which I believe M$ bought the hardware rights to and turned it into the Zune. I loved my Gigabeat...
first they changed the name to windows phone 7 and then they took the design and made windows 8 and then windows 10.
the design path is far from dead, unfortunately.
which gets us to why metro along with wp-reboot and windows 8 was such a huge fail. the joke was that windows phone 7 needed downloaded software to integrate with windows while other phones on the market did not.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
it seems like just yesterday I was laughing at the name, the marketing and the colors. Zo long Zune, we hardly knew you.
But the guy at Frys said it would be there forever. I asked his manager to fire him, but the manager refused.
I pirated all my music, and I still have it. Only dumb suckers pay for music they do not get.
If the major record labels would stop defrauding us, we might pay them money.
I was foretelling this since the day 1.
Where is your microsoft now?
The Zune software still works. Wish Microsoft would have made the windows 8 and 10 music player more like the Zune.
I carry the Zune HD with me all the time. I always find it funny when people ask me what is that. I let them see it and the next words out of there mouth is this is so much nicer then the iPod I had/have.
It was a same Microsoft can't seem to run a good advertisement for the Zune.
I don't like using my phones battery to play music so I carry a Zune and my Note 4.
I don't know about ever, but I have a brown Zune too, and up until this year (when I switched to Sonos) it was the main audio source for my kitchen/dining room speakers. I used the radio a lot, and being able to sync wirelessly was great for the time. When my kids were smaller I would load videos on it for traveling. I even prefer the Zune software to iTunes. I got it cheap from Woot, and it has been one of the best electronic purchases I've ever made.
I never trusted MS for music purchases, but the hardware and software were really pretty good.
If the sponsor is running a service that costs them more than it brings in or doesn't jive with their strategy, they will drop it. If when they drop it what you've bought is somehow compromised, then you weren't thinking straight when you bought it.
The Zune service was for the rental service, where you paid a monthly fee and could play that music for the month on your Zune PMP. You used Zune so you didn't HAVE to buy music. It was the only thing in its niche at the time.
And, I am compelled to add: The brown Zune was actually lovely in person. If you hated it, you never held it.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
PlaysForSuren't?
You should re-take first grade. Learn some basic writing skills.
After selling only two Zunes since product launch it is way too early to tell if this is a flop or not. Microsoft needs to have more stamina and reevaluate products after they sold the first ten, so they should be in a much better position to make call in 2028.