Winextra » Zune

Xbox and Zune Combining Account Preferences. More Unity To Come?

Holden — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:50:20 +0000

Have specific preferences for both your Zune and Xbox account? Not anymore, according to an email from Xbox marketing team. Your accounts preferences for both Zune and Xbox are combined, and all marketing will be under the Xbox brand.

Some virtual clerical work before the great collide?

While I always try hard to prevent reading too much into news such as this, I can’t help but shake the feeling that this will lead to more unity, and closure, of the Zune brand. After all, the Zune HD is now a dead device, and we all know that the music subs aren’t exactly stellar either.

This isn’t to say that Microsoft has given up on the idea of subscription music, but rather the current branding of it. Consolidation like this is not uncommon either. Recently, Windows Games was also branded under Xbox.

As Xbox console becomes more of a content consumption device, it makes sense to make music part of that consumption experience. After all, the brand resonates with millions of people around the world, but the same doesn’t go for Zune, which passionately cherished by the few.

That said, this could just be to cut down on some virtual paperwork. Which begs the question, have I jumped the shark? Let me know in the comments.

Xbox and Zune Combining Account Preferences. More Unity To Come? is a post from: winextra
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Microsoft to bring Zune Pass to Canada – it’s about time.

Steven — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:58:45 +0000

Microsoft's Zune Pass & Marketplace coming to Canada

It looks like Microsoft has finally been able to come to terms with Canadian rights holders and is going to be bringing Zune Pass and Zune Marketplace to the Great White North.

For all the flack that Microsoft has taken over time due to the lackluster contents of the Zune Marketplace outside of the US the reality is that it wasn’t all Microsoft’s fault as I pointed out in a post back in January; but rather being able to get the short-sighted rights holders to get on board. As we have seen in the past with services like Pandora, and even more recently Spotify, being able to roll out a worldwide music service is nigh impossible.

Musician income - click on for full view

But whatever was holding up the expansion of Zune into Canada appears to have been surmounted and effective October 3rd Canadians will be able to sign up for the full Zune Pass and Zune Marketplace for $9.99 monthly, or $99.00 yearly. The only downside of this expansion is that Microsoft has reworked some of the terms of Zune Pass which sees the removal of being able to keep ten songs a month as part of the subscription.

The one other major change; and one that is getting a bit of a negative reaction on Twitter, is that rather than buying music videos you will now be able to stream them, as many as you want. Personally I don’t want to own music videos but I do enjoy watching them immensely so really the idea that the requirement to purchase them is going away is more of a plus for me than a negative.

The other complaint is that for new members there won’t be the option to keep 10 tracks a month as part of your membership; which has gone down in price from the US original price of $14.99, doesn’t bother me in the least.

What most people don’t understand is that musicians make dick all when it comes to music streaming services. In fact, as you can see from this well-known infographic the amount of plays on a streaming service like Spotify that is needed in order to make money is astronomical. Here’s a hit – Spotify is at the bottom and is such a big circle that it can’t fit on the infographic.

For me I would much rather be able to use the streaming service to find new music or to trip down memory lane to see if the music suits my taste and then go an buy the whole album.(my current favorite place for this is 7Digital.com).

Streaming services might be a great way to experience new music or listen while on the go but if you really like the artist and want to support their work then go and buy the albums; and that is the one thing that I really hope Microsoft will be doing here – providing a way for us to buy the whole album.

As part of the membership you will also be able to synch your downloaded songs with up to four devices (1 PC + any combination of PC, Zune HD, or Windows Phone).

Now I don’t know about you but I will be lined up come October 3rd refreshing the page and the moment I can grab a Zune pass I’ll be hitting the payment button.

Microsoft to bring Zune Pass to Canada – it’s about time. is a post from: winextra
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C’mom Microsoft, how about fixing some of the stupidest Zune Desktop problems.

Steven — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:47:22 +0000

Playlist duping in Zune

This post isn’t about the missing Zune Marketplace, Zune Pass, or even the missing Zune Social outside of the United States; because that is a whole separate can of worms. What I am referring to is some problems within the Zune Desktop software itself, problems that shouldn’t even exist in the first place, especially considering that the software is such an integral part of Windows and Windows Phone.

While they are problems that irritate me slightly on a daily basis, because I use Zune Desktop as my main media player; which it is very good at being, but I had for the most part relegated them to the back of my ‘bitch’ priority lists. Then I read a post by Sarah over at Coding Geekette where she was pointing out the stupidity of how Zune handles playlists.

As she pointed out in her post this “undocumented feature” cause Zune Desktop to totally barf on playlists and displays multiple copies of them, as you can see in the image above.

Reading Sarah’s post reminded me once again of my personal pet peeves with the software; or at least two of them, that really get on my nerves.

First up – podcast subscriptions.

It never fails that at some point Zune will go nuts on downloading podcasts I am subscribed to over and over again. Here’s the listing for the TWiT podcast

As you can see this isn’t a once in a while occurrence but something that happens quite regularly and with all podcast subscriptions.

There is no other way to say this but – how freaking stupid. Any developer worth their salt would have coded in checks to make sure that this doesn’t happen, so have it happening to this degree in what is supposed to be an integral program for syncing between the desktop and Window Phone is just ludicrous.

My next irritation isn’t as important but for someone who uses Zune Desktop as their main media player for music, especially full albums, the idea that your music is sorted alphabetically; or in some cases by ratings, or in other cases just a mish mash, rather than by track number is just as stupid.

Here’s what I mean using my INXS The Greatest Hits album

As you can see the listing of songs is all over the place and doesn’t even match the track numbers as you can see here

Now for the most part this really isn’t a problem but when you want to listen to theme albums or soundtracks you want to be able to listen to the songs in the order the artist meant them to be heard.

Here is a perfect example with Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds album

In now way does this match up with the track numbers

In this case there is a story that is being told by the music and that story is ruined when played out of sequence.

Is this being overly picky?

Maybe, but if Microsoft wants Zune Desktop to be the go to media player for Windows it is things like this that will really turn off users. It just surprises me that two little things like this got through and we are now having to deal with s deficient media player.

Oh and for all those ‘anti’ Microsoft people who would suggest using some other media player .. I don’t want to and seeing as how it is being tied in so closely with Windows Phone I shouldn’t have to.

C’mom Microsoft, how about fixing some of the stupidest Zune Desktop problems. is a post from: winextra
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Has the Zune shutdown started?

Steven — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:43:33 +0000

For those of you that didn’t know the Zune Originals site was where you could customize your Zune with engravings, different styles and colors.

Well, the short of it is that Microsoft announced via the Zune Original’s site that it was now closed for business and if you still wanted to buy one then you should head over to their retail partners: Best Buy and Walmart.

While this may not seem like that much of a deal the fact is that if you look closely at the page you will see a little blurb that says, “See how Windows Phone isn’t just a phone, it’s also a great Zune music and video player.”

Rumors have been rampant about how the Zune HD was that last Zune hardware we would see and that at some point the Zune service itself will get rolled into some other division in Microsoft, most likely Xbox.

We reported earlier about how Games for Windows was getting merged with Xbox LIVE and we wondered at the end of the post what was going to happen with the Zune.

Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Zune.

What do you think?

via Zunited

Has the Zune shutdown started? is a post from: winextra
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Zune, It’s Time For an All or None Approach

Holden — Sun, 22 May 2011 23:04:23 +0000

The most popular devices on the market today:

iPhone
iPad
iPod Touch
Xbox 360
Android Phones

You know how many devices the Zune subscription service is on?

One.

Stop kicking the can, Microsoft, and man up. Zune cannot, and will never be, a success if it is limited to the Windows OS, the now dead Zune device, and the WP7 which has only managed to push 1.6 million devices. You have a great, no…, excellent music subscription service on your hands. But there is no way in hell that I can justify buying an over-priced Zune pass, and not be able to use it on my favorite devices.

Sorry to burst your bubble Microsoft, but your devices don’t fall in most people’s category of favorite devices, including mine. It seems that the team behind Bing and OneNote understand this, with both their apps considered by some to be better on competitive devices!

We no longer live in a Microsoft world, most actually live in an iTunes/Apple/Netflix world, with an exception to the Xbox 360. Having the Zune locked down to the Microsoft environment would make sense if Microsoft had anyone to lock down. But, due to Microsoft’s lackluster approach to smartphone’s until this last year (and no solid tablet strategy to date), they are no longer in any position to decide who can do what on which device.

This would still hold true if Microsoft lowered the semi-ridiculously high price of the Zune pass.

It’s time Microsoft to buck up, bite the bullet, and give me the Zune software on my Mac OS X and T-mobile G2. Otherwise you might as well send the Zune pass and software the way of the Zune device. My fear is no one will really give a damn.

Zune, It’s Time For an All or None Approach is a post from: winextra
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Finally! Xbox Live International now supports PayPal accounts

Steven — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:19:40 +0000

What an awesome post over at Major Nelson‘s blog this morning.

Microsoft is finally rolling out PayPal billing support for international Xboxers as part of the larger release of the new Xbox 360 System Update.

This might not seem like a big deal for most people but for those of us who use PayPal as our only option for online purchasing, and live outside of the US, this is a big deal. Not to mention that my Daily Brief co-host Paul O’Flaherty will be a happy camper because now he won’t have to listen to bitch about this subject anymore.

As a side note it looks like this also carries over to the Zune Marketplace as well.

Anyway here is the official announcement that made my morning:

I am happy to announce that, as a part of a new Xbox 360 System Update, we’re expanding our integration withPayPal to allow U.S. and international Xbox LIVE users to make purchases on their Xbox 360 consoles with their PayPal accounts.* Once you’ve linked your PayPal account to your Xbox LIVE account on Xbox.com, you’ll be off and running to use it as a billing option, allowing you to buy content such as Microsoft Points, Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions and Games on Demand titles.

The only downside to this great news is that I can definitely see that between Valve’s Steam game store and now both Xbox Live and the Zune Marketplace my PayPal is going to take some punishment.

Finally! Xbox Live International now supports PayPal accounts is a post from: winextra
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