Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware
Zune Marketplace: yuck
Today, I fulfilled my dutiful obligations as an open-minded journalist (ha!)/hard-core masochist and purchased a Microsoft Zune to replace my SanDisk Sansa as my music subscription device of choice. (I am a fan of the subscription model, in case you're wondering.) The Zune device itself is truthfully pretty slick: the interface is responsive and intuitive, not to mention purdy. It's a little bulky, granted, but the outer-casing is smooth and it feels comfortable and "right" in the hand. The controls are a bit sloppy -- plasticky and noisy -- but they work as expected.My real gripe here, that kinda ruins the deal for me and I'm sure for a lot of you, is the craptacular suckiness of the Zune Marketplace. First, as Engadget adequately reported: install is a pain. I had no errors, but just the amount of work involved was exhausting. Then I bought a Marketplace subscription, and lo-and-behold: some of my -- nay, most of my -- favorite bands are nowhere to be seen. And other albums I've searched for (ie, Radiohead) require that you purchase them, even if you have a subscription. (And the album price isn't even in dollars -- it's in Microsoft's convoluted points scheme.) Some albums -- ie, This Providence -- offer most of the songs for download, but the most popular (in this case, "The Road to Jericho...") you're only able to get if you actually buy the whole album. That leaves me asking: With all of these limitations, what the hell is the point of actually buying a subscription?
So not only have I graciously donated a buck to Universal for simply buying a Zune, they've decided to screw me over by sabotaging the $15/month subscription they're dreadfully eager to impose on customers.
I was cheering Microsoft on here: As I mentioned, I'm a fan of subscription services, and the Zune device isn't so bad. I wanted to see some decent competition, and I want to see Apple add a subscription option to iTunes. But they totally screwed this one up, and no amount of prettiness will save them. Microsoft, fix your Marketplace and your subscription details, then we'll talk. Until then -- stay away. Stay far, far away.
(Stay tuned for my Zune vs. iTunes comparison. Post any questions you'd like me to cover in the comments below.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Thomas Choe said 9:08PM on 11-15-2006
No questions, but could you post a bunch of screenshots of the Zune Marketplace?
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Mephistophelian said 9:18PM on 11-15-2006
Make sure you include a picture of the Zune Vs 30GB iPod and not the 80GB like everyone else.
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Alex said 9:38PM on 11-15-2006
Oh dear...
I know it was bad....
But I didn't know it was that bad!!!!
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Jonathan said 9:54PM on 11-15-2006
I'm with Thomas, please post pictures of the zune marketplace. Also, I assume you have a PC in order to have purchased a Zune and installed the Marketplace?
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Jazeel said 10:30PM on 11-15-2006
Um......you are so biased it's not even funny. You promise not to post anything about Zune and you can't follow that promise. And to seem unbiased you sprinkle some comments in your bloated insult. I love macs I really do but I'm not biased. I like to be what you call it..........objective.
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Milton Evan said 9:59PM on 11-15-2006
im still kind of scared here. i wouldnt want my favorite company to fade back into obscurity because of some deliberate attack to the iPod
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josephm said 10:16PM on 11-15-2006
Don't forget that you must buy Marketplace Points in sums of $5! Oh, and it shows the price of the song as 79 points. Guess what, 79pts = 99 cents. Oops.
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G.C. said 10:33PM on 11-15-2006
Is it possible to download the Zune desktop software without buying a Zune itself? iTunes doesn't require the iPod, so you can use it to manage your music and video files, even buy music from the iTune store and burn it to a CD. Looking over the Zune website, I can't find any way to download and play with just the software by itself.
I'm skeptical about the whole Zune thing, but I want to know if there's some way of seeing for myself how it all works without having to fork over $250 to do it.
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Camilo Alvarez said 12:00AM on 11-16-2006
Please compare the interface speed and intuitive perfomance... the ease of use... and realy how bulky (in normal use) is..... is realy an unconfortable brick?
thanks in advance
(sorry for my bad english)
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Lee said 10:45PM on 11-15-2006
The Unofficial "APPLE" Weblog
I know someone is going to give me the whole thing about skipping over posts that you don't want to read, but what is this, the 100th post about the Zune? We all know that it is going to bomb, end of story!
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Dan Pourhadi said 10:53PM on 11-15-2006
Jazeel -- I'm not sure what you're referring to. I didn't say I wouldn't post about the Zune. And I did just spend $250 of my own money to buy this thing. I have a vested interest in hoping it rocks.
Lee -- We just think it interests a lot of our readers, since it has to do with something they're very interested in: the iPod and digital music in general. This could dictate the future of the iPod (either by giving Apple future feature ideas or by forcing Apple to fight harder to compete). We just think it's worth-while to analyze it.
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Justin said 11:16PM on 11-15-2006
Hey TUAW
Just go ahead and delete the comments of people who have nothing better to do than sit around complaining about what is or isn't being said. Lately, that's all I've been reading in the comments. It's just not worth being on TUAW, and ruins it for everyone who actually appreciated the articles.
Granted, some of the stuff you guys post is kind of trivial or not applicable to a whole lot of people, but someone found worth in it and that should be enough. Some people need to lighten up and learn that their time is really not worth that much.
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Justin said 11:17PM on 11-15-2006
one more thing
QUIT COMPLAINING ABOUT THE TYPOS. ITS A FRIGGIN BLOG!
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Michael said 11:23PM on 11-15-2006
Now that it can be done. Zune is how the music industry wants it done. "Plays for Sure?" What next? A Ticketmaster player, like MovieBeam except called MusicBeam or TicketBeam? It'll come preloaded with all the touring artists and you can flag the ones you like to buy tickets. Sync for the latest. This 30G player will only cost you $99* plus tax, shipping & handling, universal PC fee, Universal fee, SoundScan fee, RIAA fund fee, ASCAP donation fee, sync fee, ISP and cost of doing business fee, and my bonus fee. Includes a 30-day free trial to the subscription service, regularly priced at only $15 a month! Songs can be purchased for additional fees. 1x burning extra. *four equal payments of $99, interest and batteries not included. **Share three 30-second clips in three days and get three more clips free!
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John Gaskell said 11:57PM on 11-15-2006
Ask and ye shall receive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36918746@N00/289615122/
and http://www.flickr.com/photos/36918746@N00/289615125/
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derriCk said 12:10AM on 11-16-2006
nO mORE ZoON pOSTs! wE kNO iT sUX0Rs! mOrE aBoUT iFonE, iTaBLeT plEaSE!
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thomas said 12:10AM on 11-16-2006
Haha to the guy who wrote a comment complaining about "people who have nothing better to do than complain". I hope it was intentional satire.
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Taylor said 12:39AM on 11-16-2006
you bought poop color? Lol
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Jeff said 1:26AM on 11-16-2006
For the love of god, enough with the zune posts. Enought Microsoft posts--enough of all the crap filler that's been all over this formerly decent blog. It's sad to see such waste of a great opportunity. It's an apple blog. Why in the hell is it so full of this zune crap? It's the second post TODAY and who knows how many this week. The earlier post remarked that it would be the last for a while. Not even 6 hours later.... and another bloody useless post.
I shouldn't have to skip over zune articles I don't want to read on an APPLE related blog. It's hard to even concentrate on the mac-related content when 14 zune stories stare me in the face everyday.
Please, as a last courtesy to your readers, lay off the crap. I guess if you feel so compelled to post crap, I'll just go elsewhere.
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Urbanose said 1:28AM on 11-16-2006
There's no Radiohead album to be found on the iTunes Store either.
At what data rate are the song from the Zune Marketplace encoded ? Because listening to "Subterranean Homesick Alien" in 128kbps MP3 or ACC is painful.
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