Jason Dunn
07-16-2008, 08:30 PM
<p>I'd like to suggest that the Zune Marketplace team add a new feature to track the demand for MP3 files. Why? Today I discovered a new band I'm really digging (<a href="http://www.myspace.com/superchick" target="_blank">Superchick</a>) by listening to the song samples, and I want to pick up a few of their albums. 800 points works out to a bit over $12 CAD, so that's not a bad price for a whole album. It's a lot less expensive than the $22.99 CAD that Amazon.ca wants to charge me for their newest album on CD. What's the problem then? The Zune Marketplace only offers up poisoned DRM tracks for their 2006 album, and there's no way to say "Hey, I want this in MP3 instead!". If they had a little button near the "Buy" button that a person could click to indicate they'd buy it if it was in MP3 format, I think that would give the Zune team valuable leverage to go back to the record labels and say "Look, you guys could have sold an extra 1000 copies of this album if you had it in MP3 format."</p><br /><p>I consider myself hugely lucky that of their five albums in the Zune Marketplace, four of them are available in MP3 format. But the 2006 album sounds great, and it sucks that I can't get it in MP3 format. I'm going to buy the four albums...as soon as a friend goes into a US store and buys me some Xbox Live points. That's right, because the Zune Marketplace isn't launched in Canada, I can't use my Xbox Live points to buy anything.</p><br /><p> </p>