If the above picture is to be believed, it looks like Microsoft's
Zune Pass is gearing up to make its UK debut. An across-the-pond tipster via
LiveSide apparently stumbled upon (and was able to successfully score the 14-day trial) a Subscription page with pricing tiers. In addition to the tryout period, there were also options for a £8.99 (about $13.74) one-month pass and £26.97 / $41.23 for three. Further details are just barely hinted at in the sidebar, but if it's anything like the US progenitor, we're looking at an all-you-can download music service and ten DRM-free MP3s each month, playable on Windows, Xbox 360 (
soon), Zune devices (still not available outside US), and
Windows Phone 7. We know
Microsoft is planning to move its "
challenging" music service into every country its phones will venture, but that little tidbit doesn't absolve this image of scrutiny. Try as we might, our UK editors are unable to find this screen anywhere. According to the original tipster, even though he has access to the trial, he still can't use it. We'll keep digging and will let you know what we find.
[Thanks, Ian]
posted July 18th 2010 1:24PM
zune pass ftw!
@Liselotte
I am enjoying my pass. I hardly notice it come out if my account. But the music is nice to have for work.
@Liselotte I love Zune even though I don't have one. I wish the Zune HD could have covered more ground and posed a serious threat the iPod touch. I guess its Microsoft's fault for not marketing it well and not having much third party app support.
Though I would love to see an app in the Android market that replicates the Zune's media(music, video, pictures) apps. That would be great! There's an iTunes variant, so there should be a Zune variant as well. Call it ZuneDroid!
@Liselotte Loyal zune pass subscriber since my Zune 2 80GB. Moved on to buying an HD for myself and my girl and a Zune pass for each, best $30 spent each month and I hardly notice money come out of my account too.
@MrFluffyThing Um. You realize that you can share the Zune Pass, right?
I mean, I know you don't even notice paying bills (lucky you) but you might as well save the money...
@MrFluffyThing you know one zune pass works with up to 3 zunes :)
I would seriously ditch my iPhone/iPod if apple doesn't get a service like this. YouTube doesn't cut it all the time for new music....espavially when I hold it with my left hand without the stupid bumper....
@unknown714 Yes, but she has her own Xbox live account and lives in another house. It makes it easier to keep them seperate and I don't mind the extra money to get the 10 songs per month DRM free for each of us instead of sharing. That's how relationships end!
@Liselotte I just had a heart attack.
@Liselotte Wait a minute, you're telling me there are people that PAY to download music? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
@willwillywilson i know somebody who paid more than $150 000 for "free" downloaded music
@unknown714 one pass to rule
@Liselotte
"According to the original tipster, even though he has access to the trial, he still can't use it."
ummm... doesn't that mean he DOESN"T have access to the trial?
@ravissimo
no, it prob means he can log in to his trial, but can't access music.
@Liselotte zune
@ravissimo I am the "original tipster" and i managed to download a few _very_ random songs. But it will fail for most.
@Liselotte yah man, i love my zune. theres only 2 things i dont like about it
1. it only has 4 gigs (if i needed, i could buy a bigger one though)
2. no zune pass, but if the U.K. is getting a zune pass then it has to mean Canada isnt far behind. at all.
i know for a fact if MS released their zune hd in canada, along with the marketplace and advertisments for both, me and every other person i know would buy one without a second thought.
@SomePerson
If they'd marketed it some more, maybe third party app support would come. There's no point in third party developers making apps if only a handful of people use the device. I love the Zune HD, it's an awesome media player, but I can't understand why Microsoft doesn't advertise it. The majority of people in the world that need to know about the Zune don't because they don't read tech blogs and tech sites, which consisted of all of the Zune HD's marketing. No TV commercials, no advertisements, no billboards, and no product placement. Unfortunately, in spite of being a superior device to the iPod Touch (in my opinion), the Zune HD has ultimately failed to overtake an inferior device because Apple did the opposite of Microsoft and marketed the crap out of their device.
But Microsoft, please, hear the plea of all Zune users around the world... Market your devices... Release an official Zune HD development kit, or extend XNA's capabilities... We're getting a little tired of PGR, Audiosurf, assorted card games, and having to manually install pieces of crap made in XNA... I never program in C#, I use C++, so please, allow me to remove C# 2008 Express from my computer...
@albinomexi rhapsody. download on appstore
@MrFluffyThing
Dude, you can share one Zune pass for both of you. The only thing is that it has to be linked to one account only.
@GregTUK Sounds like they're in the middle of a database restructuring and migration. Which ties into what Dave has been saying on ABI forums.
Interesting, although the 3 month pass' only benefit over three 1 month passes is laziness.
@d0mth0ma5 Which isn't to say that the ability to be lazy isn't a plus!
@d0mth0ma5 Agreed, a few pennies savings to incite consumers and guarantee another 2 months of savings would have been cool bet hey. If you like music this is great value, 10 tracks is pretty much an album then you get unlimited streams on-top(?), any music lovers dream (well maybe not audophiles but that's another topic).
@RampantNinja No edit button RAAAHR. I meant 2 months of service.
oh hell, just change your PC's religion to US!
@silverdoe I'm guessing you would need to setup a proxy for your xbox and windows phone 7 too. Good luck with that.
@silverdoe
>Read "religion"
>Wondering why he said it.
>About to retaliate with Windows 7 is pretty awesome.
>Realized he meant region.
>Lol'd.
@silverdoe
That doesn't work. You can gain access to the Zune Marketplace but won't be able to login to buy anything...I've tried proxies and email accounts registered to the USA but they won't work.
£8.99 is pretty much what I was hoping, will probably end up replacing my Spotify unlimited subscription with this.
@alexwilks88
I used to buy xbox live points with a US account and worked fine. Now it doesn't and since there are a few cool digital music stores in Mexico now I find the hassle of figuring a new way to get access to the Zune marketplace simply not necessary.
@alexwilks88 (I'm from the US) For whatever reason, when I was vacationing in Japan, I was able to use my Zune Pass without a problem. Not really sure how or why that worked, but it did.
@phaboman
Because you were using a US account with a US credit card :)
@phaboman
Bizarrely I've just managed to subscribe to the 14 day trial from the UK through the software (the prices were as shown above but in USD not GBP) but it just reports errors whenever I tried to download anything with it. Likewise, I have a Zune profile which knows how many songs I've been listening to but not which ones.
3 months :8.99 x 3 = 26.97
fuuuuu
@magallanes
you guys cant complain its 15$ cheaper than our price
£5.80 = $8.86
£5.80 is your minimum wage which is greater than ours
I own an Xbox 360, use Zune on my PC as a streaming service and music player.
I will own a Windows Phone 7 device as well (potentially 2 if my HD2 gets a port) so I'm very interested in this.
@magallanes
If you normally buy more than 10 songs/month then the subscription price is minimal.
In the US it ends up being essentially $5/month, which I find very reasonable.
@RampantNinja: But I download for my PC!^^
@silverdoe Ahh well you can probably get around it on PC with the right means.
Great, music on devices I don't want (Windows 7 phone), don't want to play music on (360) or can't get because they're not for sale (Zune). Good one MS.
@kaprikawn
LOL!
Ditto.
@kaprikawn
You two want some alone time?
@kaprikawn
yes because zune pass is the only way in the world to get music, it's not like there aren't shops on the street with some form of hard copy or music being transmitted via EM waves into your house or apple have some store you can buy it from or there's a website full of videos with it on or theres an ad supported music streaming service
oh wait.....
@kaprikawn
YOU don't want Windows Phone 7.
YOU don't want to play music on the Xbox 360, even though it's very nice to play music while on LIVE.
YOU are too stupid to go buy a Zune HD.
For these two opinions and incompetence, MS should stop all Zune work; because YOU don't know how to shop and don't want their phone.
I really wish the credits rolled over from month to month.
@FauxReal
Same here, I had to put a reminder on my calender to use them before I lose them.
@FauxReal I agree. At least now they send out reminder emails when my credits are about to expire. I always forget to use them, plus it's almost pointless since I don't plan on canceling my subscription. I usually just use my credits for songs that aren't included with the Zune Pass.
@admlshake
You two want some alone time?
LOL
@Death
Well if you are offering....;)
That's pretty sweet. I actually never bothered with the Zune Pass, nor was I aware that the UK didn't have it.
With the addition of Zune on WP7 and, this will be a possible way for people to ignore carrying their iPods around with their phones (though, so is the notPhone).
My only thing is with the Xbox 360. It will allow streaming, but will it allow music to be stored on the HDD and played from the Zune as well, or will it look up what songs I have in my PC collection and let me play them without having to stream it?
Also, will it track play counts? This isn't a big deal, but some people care a LOT about it.