Displaying items by tag: Zune Pass

Microsoft is an interesting company. Over the years they have built more than a few very solid products (including operating systems), but because of a lack of real leadership and marketing ability many of these products have remained in the shadows. One of these has been the Zune music service Zune Pass. This service was put into competition with Apple’s iTunes at the height of Apple’s power and consumer influence. Microsoft updated the service when they launched the ill-fated Zune HD that allowed for unlimited downloads and streaming with a simple monthly fee and still failed to get the service to take off.

Microsoft has “discovered” that users today that typically need to use multiple services to get all they want. They often will use one for buying and downloading music and another one for streaming. Because of this, Microsoft has decided to offer their solution. The Xbox Music “all-in-one” music service allows its users to stream music free of charge, unlimited for first six months and after that up to 10 hours monthly, with an unlimited streaming option if they pay a subscription or buy and download desired songs.

We have recently be criticized for making the statement that Microsoft is attempting to force the use of cloud applications on people with their latest operating system. In Windows 8 we have seen a startling shift from the PC as a stand-alone work unit to making it more like a dumb terminal that just pulls data and software from services at Microsoft. Now, as we have mentioned before, we have built and designed cloud services and know the corporate mentality behind them.