It's official: record companies don't like you. After all that griping about signing up for the
Zune music store -- and keep in mind that these record companies receive
monies for selling songs here -- that resulted in Universal Music Group getting some sort of
fat royalty check from Microsoft for Zune sales, not to mention whatever negotiations went on behind closed doors to come up with that ridiculously minimal "three days or three plays" sharing scheme, a couple of labels have once again gone out of their way to make life hard on you. It appears Sony Music and Universal Music Group are marking certain artists of theirs as "prohibited" for sharing, meaning that just because you've paid for a song, and even managed to find another Zune user on the planet Earth, doesn't mean you'll necessarily get to beam that JoJo track to another Zune via WiFi magics. In a non-scientific sampling of popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts, it looks like it's roughly 40-50 percent of artist that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there's no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail. Oh well, maybe you can just hum a few bars or something -- just make sure the labels don't hear you!
[Via
ClicZune]
Read - Zunerama
Read - Zune Thoughts
posted Jan 19th 2007 11:38AM
No one likes a spamlinker. Only relevant URLs, please.
Calm down “sonyUsh*t”. We all know you can boost music from “other” places. However, the point still reminds the same. Fraud.
Record Labels made back-door deals and profits with MS in order for the ZUNE to perform certain functions. MS then sold the ZUNE on those features to the public. Now 2 months later we come to find out that those features will only work on 50% of the Music Artist and Songs.
Did they inform the consumers about this BEFORE they made the purchase – OR did they just do it, and hope you wouldn’t notice? That’s called FRAUD – There are (at the moment) laws that protect people from companies trying to commit fraud against consumers. THAT is the point.
Keep in mind that Sony spends millions to come up with ways to stop people from ripping music onto MP3s so that they can't play the songs on the Sony Walkman-MP3 players that they sell. They came up with the root-kit that can be disabled by holding down the left-shift key. The previous one was disabled by circling the metal ring on the outside of the CD with a permanent marker.
Lauren
Que Zune Bashing Apple Fanboy's.
Isn't the Zune music store subscription-based? And if so, why in the hell limit any song sharing if others can simply go to the damn store and download and sync as much as they want anyway. WTF?
Welcome to the Anti-Social!!!
Don't forget kids, remember to break the law!
Well, that about kills the biggest reason Microsoft gave for buying the Zune.
That is why i bootleg and support the artist by going to their
live performances or tours.
MIDDLE FINGER TO THE RECORD COMPANYS.
It took them this long to find another Zune owner to share music with . . .
bruthhhhhh, my ipod is thooooo thexyyyyyy
I will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER buy a Zune. Ever.
"It took them this long to find another Zune owner to share music with . . ."
Maybe they find each other through Zuneharmony.com
The idea that this is somehow a problem is predicated on the belief that more than one person in any 50-mile radius area actually owns a Zune.
Its hilarious to me when these big media companies do things like this. Sharing limited-play songs will actually help sell music.
I'm glad they're forcing some protection on Zune users, what with all the indiscriminate squirting they're likely to do.
oh man... i can see it now:
A guy walking down the street with his lonely zune when out of nowhere, "could it be??? another zune??"
He walks up to a beautiful girl rocking her poop brown zune.
"Care to share?"
"Why not?" she says then bites her lips.
They wait 5 minutes for the songs to fly through the air, but alas... its a no go.
"Well it looks like it wasnt meant to be" she says and walks away.
Then the poor little zune boy walks away, and hopes that somewhere out there is another girl, with another poop brown zune, who has artists to share that are not blocked.
How can the blame not rest squarely on Microsoft? Different DRM restrictions have been applied across other stores, but they are indicated as only-streaming or what not.
The issue here is Microsoft isn't telling their customers. There is no indicator at the store. There is no indicator once it is bought and on your PC/device. You only now when it fails.
We already knew that certain artists and studios want to control their content as much as possible. But it is Microsoft that is advertising this feature and proclaiming it the reason to buy their device.
(Also, it's Microsoft's weak negotiating position and willingness to cave to get any access at all which allows this.)
But the primary problem is Microsoft's. They advertise a capability that only works 60% of the time.
Although they do warn about this in fine print (it's hilarious that the Zune lovers are only catching on two months later), I think it is a serious issue that they aren't telling users which songs are and are NOT sharable.
I really can't see how they're still in business after all this crap. There are plenty of talented artists out there. Unpublished artists are getting more and more attention, and published artists just keep playing the same junk (Is it just me, or is every song by P-Ditty basically the same?)
Sure - prevent users from hearing your music unless they buy it first! Give them only one choice to learn about an artist - buy the album. That's *sure* to sell more albums, right?
P-Ditto?
Okay, I don't own one or plan to own one, and I know the Zune isn't the most popular device by a long shot, but this is ridiculous. At least give the damn thing a fighting chance among the small concentrations of users who already own one. This is one of the most ridiculous and outlandish slap-in-the-face measures ever concocted. "What?! They're not selling well? Let's cripple them BECAUSE WE CAN!"
Someone hack the bloody thing already.
Dear music industry: Your wallet is making your collective ass look fat again.
To help destroy this cartel, please stop buying music unless it's DRM-free.
Just one more reason I will NEVER buy music online. Maybe I'm old-skool, but there's something warm and fuzzy about owning a physical CD, and knowing that I can rip it to MP3 and play it wherever the hell I want.
Just a question- Can one get around this problem? I know that songs I download from iTunes, all i have to do is burn them to a CD, then rip that CD, and all the protections are gone. It's a pain, but worth it. Not that i have or will ever own a Zune, but does this technique work for all protected music files?
I concur, I keep a hard copy around so I can rip at higher than 128Kbps. To me it seems anything between 128 and 192Kbps truncates overtones higher than 15Khz into static, and that gives me a headache. I only rip my CDs at 320Kbps and tweak them on my ZVM. I don't consider myself an audiophile by any means, it's just the static might as well be a hammer banging around in my head.
@gb,
It is true, burning files to a CD and re-ripping them will remove the protection content, but it comes at a heavy quality cost. Burning a protected file stretches the file size out from a heavily compressed mp3 or similar format to a decompressed WAV or AAC format readable by cd players. To take that file and re-rip it means you are taking an already truncated file and shaving it down even more to compress the file size. Doing stuff like that, while a valid solution to your problem, will ultimately sound like it came from a low-powered FM station, meaning you can hear it, but it won't really be worth listening to after a while.
This doesn't really matter. To say that some crappy and frankly offensive feature has gotten even crappier and even more offensive is not saying much. The Zune's success is solely dependent on whether or not it can be hacked. If some magical genius can find a way to unleash the wifi to it's full potential, allowing users to freely distribute any kind of file between themselves and also allow casual web browsing, then I think the Zune's sales will really take off. And can I just say shame on you, Microsoft, for forcing people to pay for all the components for wifi and not be able to use it freely. That would be like buying a corvette but then finding out that 4 of the 8 cylinders are filled with clay.
@ Yaya -- Agreed, although another thing that would really make the Zune a hot seller would be if you could play XBox games on it.
http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/howto/play/mediausagerights.htm
WTF? Does Microsoft have a disclaimer on the Zune Store, saying "some songs not shareable due to DRM restrictions"? Welcome to the social*, indeed.
Don't the record companies get it. It will all be free one day. Stunts like this just pisses off their users. Makes you want to "steal" more music.
"I pulled down the top 50 songs downloaded from Zune Marketplace, using my Zune Pass subscription. I then created a playlist of those 50 songs, and attempted to wirelessly send the whole playlist to my wife's Zune.
When the transfer completed, a message appeared on my player: 'Can't send some songs because of rights restrictions. 29 of 50 songs sent to Carrie's Zune'."
Wow. The labels are insane.
One more reason to get a Sansa Connect.
The zune is a joke.
That's a big slap in the face to customers and to MS. I'd be doing two things if I were MS right now:
1. suing Universal for royalties they paid under contract (breach and fraud).
2. leaking the zune firmware for the free hacking (If you're being sold out, return the favor)
Record companies are practically law firms, and such group don't understand what "enough is enough" means. Not only do they refuse to improve their own efficiency, they make sure others will be disrupted to innovate.
Besides this Zune incident, Apple and numerous MP3 manufacturers long have the technology to purchase songs wirelessly via wifi. They can't enable such technology for consumers solely due to RIAA's demand of different contracts seeking more money + more restrictions. If RIAA can't represent the definition of GREED, I don't know what can.
"But the primary problem is Microsoft's. They advertise a capability that only works 60% of the time."
Sounds like a juicy lawsuit is in the works.
Bill Gates, Howard Stringer and Doug Morris are twits if they think moves like this do anything positive for any of their companies, or do anything except give music and digital content downloaders even more reasons to not stop. DRM is not the answer you dummies!
buy a cd. rip it then give it to a friend. much easier.
Why play by the DRM rules when companies like Sony and UMG go out of their way to be as draconian and restrictive as they can? Why support ANY DRM'ed music given the contempt music companies and their enablers have consistently treated customers to?
I was an early adopter of downloaded music (iTunes) and then subscription music (Yahoo, Napster). Given the increasing fracturing and proliferation of DRM schemes and restrictions, what's in it for me? I'm beginning to think P2P is actually a consumer rights movement, given the lack of meaningful customer participation in the schemes of the music companies.
They continue to deny the reality of streaming/downloadable music, slashed production costs and the death of the "album" as the primary product. Why should anybody support these over-reaching, greedy dinosaurs?
The Zune just gets better day by day! :D
why are record companies so afraid that someone will hear a song without paying 3 times?
do these people not realize that people listen to the radio, walk through malls, Listen to cd's in their friends cars?
are they going to make us get eardrum implants that only allows the purchaser of the song to hear it? Do they want anyone to know that their songs exist?
They want to be compensated every single time their song is performed. Thats what the "broadcast flag" is all about. They don't want us to ever "own" any song; they want to retain full control over it so whenever it's "performed", they get paid.
Replace "song" with "movie" or "video" and you get the idea with the MPAA.
In the comments of every article about music download one thing is an absolute. The public loves DRM just the way it is and they have no desire to see it change.
I never cease to be amazed at how people can take stories about how the recording industry squeezes the consumer and spin it into something they're happy about. As long as consumers snipe at each other and cheer when one company or another is screwed by the recording industry it guarantees that DRM is here to stay. As long as you happily give your money to a music DL service that has the name you're enamored with you give the recording industry all of the ammunition they need to say "The public loves DRM just the way it is." and frankly they're right.
From the Zune.net site:
By joining the Zune community, you can:
* Share your life in music and pictures. Got a song your friends just have to hear? Beam them a sample track, Zune to Zune.[1]
[1] The Zune to Zune sharing feature may not be available for all audio files on your device, and works only between Zune devices within wireless range of each other. This feature allows recipients to play full-length sample tracks up to 3 times in 3 days. Recipients cannot re-send music that they have received via the sharing feature.
I STILL think MS has been less than truthful about the social aspect but they DO cover their ass with the above no?
A lot of companies stretch the truth of the capabilities of their products right?
No..I don't have a Zune or iPod.
>>why are record companies so afraid that someone will hear a >>song without paying 3 times?
Because they know in those little black holes that they have for hearts that if someone actually listened to any of their artist's songs 3 times they are not worth buying.
I'm amazed he found someone else w/ a Zune. I just spent the weekend flying out of Philadelphia -- Didn't see a single Zune anywhere....
Three points:
1 - how could MS have not checked with Sony (such a big player in the music business!) first ... that's like so arrogant.
2 - Record companies own the copyright on their artists music, who are we to tell them what to do with their property?
3 - Why should Sony peomote Microsoft hardware? Microsoft ruthlessly screw their competition.
we are the people that give them the money to listen, watch and view their materials. If i give you money to buy (not to rent) a shirt you can't tell me when to where it, how to wear it, and who else can wear it. That's what music company's /drm does. It believes that music is something different. I don't believe in home owners associations or drm
I completely agree with Adrian. While the things that the record labels have done all these years do suck, fact is we've supported the crap with our dollars...all these years. And folks were never really sufficiently outraged or "up in arms" enough to hold their cash and vote "no" the way smart people do.
Well, when we see that we can just take the music for free, and the labels try to curtail that, NOW is when people get all consumer-rights and self-righteous about what the labels are doing. In other words, "why won't you let me steal what you just spent millions to create/distribute/market"? And the labels are the ones out of touch with reality? Ok.
It sucks paying $20 for a crappy CD from some cookie-cutter recording act. But it sucks even worse to steal your favorite artist's music online, then wrap yourself in some fake consumer rights BS. You aren't hurting the Machine, you're hurting the artist. The fewer records the good artists sell, the fewer that will even get the chance to shine. Basic math.
And please spare us that transparent crap about how folks still pony up cold cash for "good music". Once you're used to getting it for free, that's what you're gonna do. So artists go from being raped by the labels to being raped by their so-called fans. I guess that's progress, huh?
Damnit people!! when will you lern?
STOP BUYING DRM!! say FU to the record companys!
Sucks. But you can still share music than you can with an iPod. The iPhone has wi-fi... but no sharing! Can't even stream content to an AppleTV.
Looks like musicgremlin had it right.
they complain about how much money they loose from illegal downloading yet the constantly do stuff like this to drive away customers. If they were to give up their ancient business plan and become more flexible on the internet they could be racking in so much more cash...
Please stop being naive, a business is setup to make money, they don't hate or love us, they really don't care, but making money is the priority.
"It's official: record companies don't like you."
Please stop being naive, a business is setup to make money. They don't hate us or love us, they realy don't care. Making money is the priority.
Amazing... so many people are quick to blame the Zune when this is in fact a DRM issue. You want to get around this??? Don't buy music from an online store! Buy a CD, rip it, and like magic, No DRM!!! No Restrictions!!! No hassles!!! Imagine that, suddenly you are free to share music. *sigh*
"It's official: record companies don't like you."
Please stop being naive, a business is setup to make money. They don't hate us or love us, they realy don't care. Making money is the priority.
I think what a lot people who post on blogs and comment on blogs about the notorious and evil nature of organizations like the RIAA don't realize is that the reason why the RIAA still exists is because there are way more consumers who don't know or care or read engadget. The only thing that matters to little Suzie and her dad is that little Suzie can take her music she gets from iTunes and puts it on her iPod and is happy. Her dad is happy cuz Suzie is quiet and content and all the parts like iTunes and iPod, or ZVM and WMP11 just work and there is no bitching. We who so desparately wish the RIAA would fall off a cliff and hit every damned pebble before plummeting straight to hell are a very rare breed in the face of the entire market.
Yes, more people blog by the day, and eventually, the general public will wake up and realize the ass-raping they've been getting over the years from the industry. But as it stands, at this moment, there are very few alternatives we have, some are illegal, which most of us clearly brush off as simply sticking it to the man. Some are legal, but come at a very heavy cost, like burning and re-ripping the protection off of our files. And then there are legal ways that just work, but are somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient, like buying the cd's, especially in the case of just requesting one or two tracks. All we can do is continue our own game, let the industry play theirs, and in due time it will be us, the consumer, who bends the industry over and gives it right back to them.
I feel sorry for those being suckered into the HD market. The guy at Best Buy tells John or Jim that this Brand new plasma will last them for years and with the introduction of HD movies, their home theater will be complete. What they fail to mention is that in two years, one of the machines will become obsolete due to market restrictions like HDCP, (either the TV without HDMI like mine, or the player), where in some cases, could potentially scale back a Blu-Ray movie from 1080p, which would look sweet on that new plasma, all the way back to 480i, standard-def tv, which most of us know, is a bitch on a big screen digital tv.
I didn't like thier comment about "finding another zune owner on the earth" I purchased a zune the day ti came out, and after the holidays , I found out atleast a dozen people I knew had a zune too.
One thing Engadget left out was , this only applies to tracks bought from the zune store.
When you go to a store and a salesperson sells you something don't you take the time to read the instructions? It is only DRM music that can't be played for more than 3 plays or 3 days. And why are you blaming Microsoft for Sony's greed? That is so sick. In Michigan they prosecuted a 12 year old girl for downloading songs off the net and not paying royalties. How sick is that? And you blame Microsoft who gives you a sleek new peice of machinery that ties in nicely with your xbox and your pc.
Besides you can share videos, movies and pictures too. It's not just music.
"It's official: record companies don't like you."
Please stop being naive, a business is setup to make money. They don't hate us or love us, they realy don't care. Making money is the priority.
people actually buy songs from the Zune Marketplace?
You can find media rights on tracks from within the Zune software...
How about, right-mouse clicking, selecting properties, clicking Media Usage tab.
Are you all seriously crying over the fact you can't share a JoJo tune you may have purchased?
Please...as if any of you are actually paying for that "40% to 50%" of the DRM'd songs Sony and Universal blocked, and if you really have a JoJo track you don't have a lot of room to diss the Zune.
In real life useage I've not had one single file I've transferred to another Zune block. Not one file over four different units shared. Why? Cause I don't pay for Sony crap anyway.
This article is getting way more hype than it deserves thanks to the Apple cult, and just because some board had that amount block does not mean that all Zune users are going to get the same results. It all depends on how much music you actually bought and if those specific files are the ones blocked by Sony and Universal. That amount is a whopping zero files on mine.
This is Microsoft's fault. In their zest to offer a iTunes/iPod competitor, they signed ill-advised agreements with Universal. I don't think Universal should get a percentage of Zune sales in addition to the per song fee. What if I buy a Zune and NEVER buy a Universal song? Now, I've paid a fee to a publisher for nothing! I guess Universal had Microsoft by the balls and said the Zune is nothing without content. Pay us the fee or we won't let you use our music library. Regardless of whether you like Zune or iPod, the music industry should not be able to force different terms on different hardware manufacturers. Microsoft and Apple should have insisted on the same terms for all players, and then let the devices prosper or fail on their own merits.
instead of Welcome to the Social, Microsoft should have the box read Welcome to the restrictions.
This is why I continue to not pay for music, when you give me free, unrestricted access to something I pay for im down but with bullsh*t like this happening constantly you cant ever pay and know your getting what you pay for so the solution is simply not to pay for it. Maybe they will come to their senses or they will go out of business, I cant believe some morons out there actually pay for this content and take it up the @$$ from the record companies and keep them going without letting them learn for the rest of us.
When are people gonna wise up and realize that things are not going to get better until we start sending a message with our wallets and boycott all records put out by these RIAA asshats? They actually manage to sell a few songs on the internet where you can easily find the same song with (a) better quality, (b) no playback restrictions, and (c) for free, and they still want to bend you over and rape you!
Oh, and do I smell a class-action lawsuit coming for MS? If there is no way to distinguish which songs will not work with the 3x3 system before purchasing them, then it would seem that MS is marketing a non-existent feature.
@BAMF
I 100% agree with you. The RIAA is losing money, not a ton, but enough that they are starting to become dangerously insane. I read on digg.com yesterday – that they are starting to arrest and sue Musicians. WTF? Biting the hand that feeds you? Who would do that?
RIAA is the problem; they refuse to change with the times. It’s not the public that will effect change – it will be the Artist/Musicians. When NEW artist and old timers stop signing they’re rights away in contracts and the record labels, start losing millions of dollars – that will be the moment the RIAA will realize they’ve made a huge mistake. By then it will be to late. The wheels are already in motion.
Oh that's just wonderful and well I would say that constitutes fraud.
They said that you could share any song with your friends.
No one said that you could not.
Take back your zune. This is the fire for a class action lawsuit.
well, I guess I'll just squirt them on my iPod... oh wait...
This kinda sucks for Zune users like me, but then again, I dont buy music anyway, so it doesn't affect me. It is already possible to send any file via the WiFi, and THE ZUNE HARD DRIVE IS USER UPGRADABLE!!!! I curretly run an 80gb Zune!
Vastly suprior to the 5g iPod I traded for it!!!
Yeah. "Welcome to the Social. Just not when you're playin' music by THOSE guys".
So much for havin' WiFi. Microsoft should've just focused on WiFi sync and called it a day.
So, wont normal NON DRM mp3's shoot across to the next zune or will only the DRM'ed ones do this????
I hope the Sansa Connect is better then the Zune then for this.
Welcome to the UN-social!
"It's official: record companies don't like you."
As of 2007? I think this is a little outdated, don't you think? Record companies don't like us since ANALOG CASSETTE (I've still got some tapes with the "STOP PIRACY" label on them). When was that, early 80's??
Record companies like our money, not us.
Only mac-fucks buy music online. cause they are mindless zombies who shit when apple tells them to. I have a w810i mp3 phone that comes with software with zero restriction. i copy discs or downloads songs p2p and never worry about any fees. Best of all music phones look cooler then players(except anything from motorola which is all shit!).
p.s. are we forgetting how unreliable microsoft is? do you really want to buy something thats called zune?
You do realise that you can load CDs and p2p downloads onto iPod don't you? Because otherwise people might confuse you for an ignorant Sony fanboy.
First, I must add that the photo of the Zune gave me the impression that it was even more ugly than expected. I've never sen one for real, but I've not looked for it either.
Second, The sharing -experience is a good idea, but as a new player Zune should have introduced something that played along with its limited marked share. Because device interaction on a limited platform never catches on, and with this limits it's even worse.
So UMG gets a buck for every Zune sold, and then limits even more severely what you can do with their content. Wow, tha takes big brass ones! Of course when MS bends over and spreads them, what do you expect. You don't need to be an "Apple fanboy" to see that this is patently disgusting. Another example of treating your customers like thieves, even tho' they are the ones who are trying to do the right thing and pay something for their music. Even if it is a stupid rental plan!. The actual thieves proceed as usual. Zune even adds DRM to songs that you have ripped from your own CDs and put on the player. Fairplay, for all its criticism as a DRM scheme, does not do that. If you want to share a song with somebody, buy a headphone splitter, and leave the Zune-turd collecting dust on the bottom shelf at Worst Buy!
This is exactly why i don't get into digital distribution. I won't adopt it. Sure, I guess I'm playing into exactly what the record companies want. They of course want to kill it.
BUT .. i will rip my CD's onto my ipod or zune or whatever, and guess what I don't have to worry about any of this digital rights crap.
But I imagine they're trying to screw me out of that capability as well. Which basically means I wont listen to their crap.
nothing is wrong with digital distribution, just DRM.
Microsoft should have just partnered with a site like eMusic and forgot about the whole DRM/music store idea. Music sharing is a great idea...it's just the RIAA squashes anything resembling innovation. Support DRM free music and independent artists or just buy from allofmp3.com. ;)
we're seeing less than that amount at our Zukakke.com squirting parties...
Microsoft needs to implement the WiFi abilities that the other players are going to have. Sync at least. Shoutcast streaming and download from the subscription service / updating licenses as well. Seriously, why did they put WiFi in the Zune if they were hardly going to use it?
Another half-baked Microsoft product. The Zune is the laughingstock of the industry! The Zune TV commercials are pathetic. You can view quite a few of them on YouTube.com. No wonder Microsoft is ashamed to actually air them! A quick peek at the Electronics Bestsellers on Amazon.com will show that NONE of the Zunes are even in the top 100 bestsellers now that the holiday season has passed. The Zune brand is now permanently tainted due to such a poor initial product release and horrible marketing.
Zune rocks.
I've always wanted:
1) A device I couldn't save my PC files on. So unique!
2) A device I couldn't upload or download songs with on any operating system I please.
3) A device with superfluous features in order to get checkbox marketing points more than useful everyday use. (I love restrictions placed on shared files. It's so hip and new).
4) A device approved by the cartels, with kickbacks to the cartels, connected to a cartel-approved "music store".
I especially love how the whole Zune marketing approach is this pompous notion of "supporting independent artists". Such honesty and integrity in marketing...
I love the Zune! I've always wanted to continue supporting the cartels. They're such dears. I've always wanted to continue supporting the fine music heard all over the payola-based radio. And continue this fine, fine social police state watching over my audio deeds.
Love you Microsoft! Love you RIAA!
http://www.vorbis.com
http://flac.sourceforge.net
haha. played for sure again, Zune users. I'll not be trading my Apple closed system which works well, for the micro$oft closed system that blows anytime soon.
Really, why endure a closed system at all? Buy the best all around player (iPod), use the best all around software (iTunes) and rip CDs purchased used from Amazon of ebay on the cheap at a better bitrate with NO DRM. And middle finger to the labels.
Heh, I rip to my wifey's iPod on the real freakin cheap...almost all of the mp3s I have come from the internet or my own cd's that I've owned for LONG before MP3 even hit it huge...and just copy paste into the iPod...thats the only reason I would consider an iPod...F Zune after reading this shit
I'd rather buy an apple scented turd than a Zune...btw, anyone else think its a strange occurance that they have one thats in shit brown?
The music industry just does not understand consumer marketing. This is why peer-to-peer sharing is still going on. Consumers want choice, like with every other consumer product, they want the opportunity to take it home, try it on, and see whether it is for them. The music industry is so greedy, that they aren’t seeing the forest through the trees. I buy my music solely through iTunes, because they have a fair licensing scheme, at least the fairest out there, reasonable prices, nicely integrated system & immediate downloads. Before iTunes, I only purchase used CDs, which the music industry made an unsuccessful attempt to squelch. Thank you US Supreme Court. Too bad Apple didn’t buy Universal, they could have had the pleasure of canning that lame a** CEO.
look into how much the artists get for every song sold on iTunes, then tell me it's fair. Both Zune and iTunes are just extensions of the industry that needs to die and be taken over by independents selling directly to their fans.
Buying CDs is in fact a far smarter move if you must support them. Sound quality, for one. Flexibility, two. Hard-copy physical item, three. There are more reasons...
"To help destroy this cartel, please stop buying music unless it's DRM-free"
Just don't buy the Zune. MS pays the studios a kickback for every zune.
Like I needed to talk anyone out of a Zune....
Well I bought me a zune because I was tired of iTunes rearranging and renaming my music collection every five minutes. Had to re-install zune once and it made me erase my zune and re-convert and sync my entire music collection. (I own over 250 albums so they won;t all fit on a 30gb drive at 256k encoding.) The zune is still better in my opinion. I don't care about the sharing, I only buy CD's and rip them so I KNOW I own them. I don't care about the zune store, I don't buy any digital media, physical media only. DRM isn't evil... it's like a lease on a car... don;t go over certain mileage, don't let other people drive it unless you've paid for the insurance bump to let em, and at the end you can either pay the full price for it, or you can give it back and get something different. You don't buy DRM media, you rent it for as long as you decide to use thier service. what happens when you switch to Zune from iPod or vice-versa? You lose your entire media collection and get to start over.. be smart... buy CD's. If you're concerned over not being able to hear the songs... there's something they invented a LONG time back called the Radio... I decide what CD's I'm going to buy for ripping from that. If you are concerned about unsigned local bands... go around to the coffee shops and small clubs in your town and GO TO THIER SHOWS!!! Don't gripe you can't find thier stuff on Zune MP or on iTunes or whatever... go to thier show.. buy thier CD at the show... get it autographed (I have dozens of such) and have a real collectible if they make the bigtimes. There are other ways of getting a music collection together other than DRM stuff. It works for my niece who loves her iTunes and spending those gift cards she gets all the time on it... and I got to say that for her and her level of audio expertise (not to mention she prolly will stop listening to the stuff in less than a year anyways) it's good for her. For me it's not. But that's why it's a MARKET and not a Monopoly.