Jason Dunn
11-03-2006, 12:46 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/microsoftpoints.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/microsoftpoints.htm</a><br /><br /></div><em>"Microsoft® Points, the coin for the Zune™ Marketplace realm, is a universal system that works across borders, including Xbox Live® Marketplace and other Microsoft properties. Now you can truly explore new music on your own terms. Want to learn more about them? Here’s how they work: purchasing Points lets you deposit them into a special account that you can use on Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live Marketplace. You can buy Points online from the Marketplace itself by using your credit card, or you can pick up Microsoft Points cards at many participating retail locations and use those Points to purchase new music that you want.Once you purchase Points, you can browse and purchase songs or albums through the Zune Marketplace for 79 Microsoft Points per track (roughly 99 cents). When you purchase a track or album, you own it outright. That’s right. You can sync it to your Zune, rip it to a CD, or even send it to a friend’s Zune so they can see if they like it."</em><br /><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/zune-marketplace-namebadge-nov2.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />I'm a big fan of Microsoft points, at least in the Xbox world - we'll see if things feel different in the Zune world when I have to do a mental conversion from 79 points to 99 cents USD for each song. Still, by using points the Zune approach leaves itself open to other options, like variable rate pricing that might be more complicated if it were tied to a hard dollar number.