Zune Pass hit by wave of disappearing music?
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 4th 2010 7:22PM
posted February 4th 2010 7:22PM
It's not exactly all that uncommon to see some music disappear from Zune Pass (or any other music service) due to rights issues and whatnot, but Microsoft's subscription service seems to have been hit with significantly more vanishing acts than usual as of late, which has resulted in a sizable number of complaints from users. In some cases, that includes all the music from some artists (Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, and Spoon, to name a few), while others have seen only some albums, or some songs disappear. For its part, Microsoft's customer service seems to be telling folks that any music no longer available is due to the record labels pulling it, but the reports from users seem to suggest there's little rhyme or reason about what's been pulled. So, any Zune Pass users out there missing some of their favorite tunes? Let us know in comments.
[Thanks, Zack]
[Thanks, Zack]
Im not missing anything..but I sitll cant downlaod anything on my computer due to DRM issues that cant be fixed...FML
@FauxReal I'm pretty sure there is a program that ms released a while ago that resets drm. google it and see if it works (sorry, I don't know the name)
@FauxReal As far as I know, the only stuff that's DRMed is the stuff you haven't bought. Once you buy it, it goes on your hard drive sans DRM.
@User Formerly Known as Dave I bought a movie just the other day, and i got the error message C00D12F5 when I try to download it. And @gonintendo I tried following the steps on this page when I googled the DRM reset and the reset utility didnt work >:(.
This is what pisses me off. If you dont want people to pirate movies, then get your act together and either give me my movie or my money back!
Ahh, it's always nice to be reminded why subscription-based stuff sucks. What's that playing in the background while I type? Oh yeah, it's one of the 14,000 songs I paid for, always at my fingertips. Enjoy your Zune, suckers.
@Im an idiot really? how much did you pay for those 14000 songs? lets see...14000*$1.29...$18000? it works fine on my zune, which is really the most important thing. so get out.
@FauxReal
Until it disappears with no warning, which is exactly what's happening. He's right, this is exactly why subscription is stupid. You're renting it to begin with, and then they can just pull it at any time.
@Im an idiot
I use the money I save using Zune to pay for my mortgage. I guess that makes me an idiot, haha.
@Jack
Shrug, until I lose more than the album Bang Bang by Dispatch you won't convince me that my like bajillion dl's from the zune pass are "stupid".
And yes I can no longer play dispatch...weird that just that band went.
@FauxReal
I think you are forgetting that lots of albums are $9.99 and include 12-16 Tracks... So it's more like $9000-$10000 lol... none the less I still love owning my music too!
@FauxReal I'm not seeing any stuff already there that I'm missing. I've just always had problems with content selection.......... come on Zune guys, get Metallica for the Zune Pass!
@Im an idiot I don't know why I'm even replying to this, but I'm listening to music too. It's one of the over 6 million songs in the zune marketplace... at my fingertips. (plus don't forget the 10 song credits a month , you could put it this way - I pay 1.50 per song and buy 10 songs a month. Plus unlimited downloads of DRM'd music.
@I was swhite237 I lost my passwo
It would be awesome if Metallica was on Zune (or any sub. service). The way I look at it, the labels want to keep a price tag on all its works, which is a damn fine investment if you ask me, since it WILL sell. Same thing IMO with the Eagles.
@Im an idiot just so you know...I am in fact enjoying both of my Zunes. Thank you for your concern.
@FauxReal
Don't you just love proprietary stuff?
@Jack
With ZunePass you have access to 6 million songs, and can still buy any track you want to keep permanently (almost always in DRM-free mp3 format). And you get 10 credits per month, so you can "buy" 10 songs per month for free.
So how are users of Zune Pass "idiotic"?
@FauxReal I have about 17,000 songs, and I certainly did not pay $1.29 per song. Shop around... cheap CDs, eMusic, deals on the "big" services, freebies from Amazon.... You can get tons of music, cheaply, without silly ideas like Zune Pass.
@MollyC
I didn't say anybody was idiotic. I said subscription was stupid. The fact that you are using examples in which somebody BUYS the music rather than renting it in order to try to prove me wrong is only proving my point further.
You don't need Zune Pass to buy music. The point I'm making is that subscription is stupid because if anything happens for any reason, like the labels decide to pull music, it will just suddenly be gone from your hard drive. Also if you stop paying the subscription fee, you lose EVERYTHING other than what you actually bought. Again, you don't need Zune pass to buy music.
Sure, you get 10 songs a month for your $15 subscription fee. That works out to $1.50 per song, and those are the only songs you get to keep. When you actually work out the numbers, Zune Pass really isn't a good deal at all. Renting music is a bad idea, because they can just take it back any time.
@Jack
People like you are why people thing subscription is so bad. You give inaccurate information. When music expires, no it doesn't work but it also isn't just delete from your hard drive. No music is ever deleted unless you delete it. Once you pay it starts working again. And from my experience, even if the song is no longer available on Zune Pass it will still renew it's DRM and work until, 1. you let the DRM expire or 2. you move the song to a new computer or reinstall Windows/Zune Software.
Subscription music isn't stupid at all. People just need to understand that there are terms and there are downsides to everything. Microsoft helps ease those downsides by offering the 10 free songs a month.
Personally I love subscription music. I don't need to own everything. A lot of people would like it too if they understood it. And if more people understood and used it we wouldn't have problems like disappearing music because labels wouldn't see the need to remove the music if huge quantities of people are downloading it and they're making money.
That sucks. Everyone should just go steal the songs now!
(I'm kidding, don't anyone reply to this to tell me that I lack moral turpitude - wow, that boring book from grade 9 English finally came in handy!)
@Ellianth
You lack moral turpitude.
@Ellianth
Lacking moral turpitude is a positive quality, not a negative one.
/grammar nazi
/I didn't know what it meant and totally looked it up out of curiosity
@Knolly
In that case, Ellianth fails for not remembering the boring English book from 9th grade, and I fail for not looking up the definition of turpitude myself.
@Ellianth
Yeah, i didn't remember it correctly.
*cries in a corner*
@Knolly
It's not grammar, more semantics.
/pendant ;-)
@Wolfticket
Geez...
@Ellianth I lack moral turpitude, when it comes to music... XD
People always wonder where I get my music. Just take the time to look around. It's there, waiting...
"Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, and Spoon, to name a few".
Who the hell are these people?
And get off my lawn!!!
@LAY
Seriously?
Arcadia Fire and Spoon are old but pretty well known - not like Kanye well known, but then again they never did dumb things like him
@apan see: the last line of him comment
@notbuttershift1 *his
@LAY I only know of vampire weekend because kid cudi sampled one of their songs. I was disappointed I couldn't download the album from Marketplace.
@LAY
Vampire Weekend recently had the top album on the Billboard chart, for what that's worth. They and Spoon are two of my favorite bands! I also like Arcade Fire. I am such a hip youth!
@LAY By the replies to your comment, I see that Engadget readers still need sarcasm warnings.
Now turn down that infernal racket!
@LAY
Who the hell are YOU?
Arcade Fire is overrated (by hipsters like myself), Vampire Weekend and Spoon are the shit, both recently released new albums in 2010 (Vampire Weekend - Contra was very highly anticipated). Check out Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend and Underdog by Spoon. And don't miss Ratatat's new album LP4 coming this spring!
/Providing you with alt-breaux indie music news since 5 minutes ago!
/I listen to bands that don't even exist yet.
@More People Who Don't Care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVvIDC_NVeQ&feature=player_embedded
A taste of Ratatat's LP4
I don't use zune pass....
Tried it, it was okay, but the DRM doesn't work in audio-surf, so I have no reason to use it.
@joebob my DRM'd songs play fine in audio surf
@joebob Sure they do. I was able to play with zunepass songs on it.
@MarcusMaximus
When ever I'd try to get audio-surf to compile the track for a zune pass song, it would crash.
@joebob I don't use it either. For the 10 free songs I get to own per month I'm not sure it's worth it considering I also have a pandora account which I listen to commercial free for $36 for the year.
If I hear anything I like on pandora, I'll look it up on the interwebs and download. Legally, of course. :]
The zune HD though? A veritable piece of art!
@Beaupedia OK, so did you not learn anything over the last few days about being a polite commenter?
No issues here.
@Modred189 lucky bastard. considering i have about 12000 songs and i only lost like 8 this week i wasn't hit that bad. but still annoying.
one thing that irked me was some albums said they would not sync because the album was removed from the marketplace but i would find that they just replaced it with a different version. Stankonia by OutKast has done this to me like 4 times in the last year, one of them being yesterday. it is annoying as hell but it then end it works out i guess.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
..
oh wait they were never on zune pass
@apan but you can buy it on your music credit...
So, subscription content shoots itself in the foot again. I'm old fashioned I like to have something to show for money spent on music.
@Stratification This is a catalog issue, no different than if the songs were pulled from iTunes or Amazon. This is not a debate on 'own vs subscribe' it's just about some labels pulling music
@Stratification how does ten tracks a month sound... thats 1.50 per song plus unlimited downloads of just about anything you want as icing on the cake.
@burnblue
I would disagree, because if a song I bought 2 months ago suddenly dissappears out of iTunes, I would still have it. :\