Purchased song will no longer play?

[mwatson162]

This fairly small issue has me about ready to chunk my Zune and go full board iPod as much as I hate to.

I have some songs I purchased several years ago from Zune marketplace. now when I try and play them it asks me to log into the Zune so it can verify rights to the songs and when I log in the program tells me that the songs are longer available from Zune marketplace so their rights cannot be verified.

No these songs were not from a past Zune pass subscription.

So is this like when Amazon yanked back copies of the eBooks for 1984? At least Amazon autmatically refunded people that purchased those books.

:( I have not been able to find any answer or anyone else that is having this problem. Anyone out there have any suggestions??

[Sven Johannsen]

I haven't had this particular issue with the Zune, but have with Napster (the legite one). Almost exactly the same, artist had a falling out with Napster and their songs no longer played. It's an artifact of DRM, no matter whose, MSs, Apple's, Amazon's whatever. If the file is not a bog standard MP3 or WMA (or whatever), there is the chance something will go wrong and you will lose access to your music file. Personally, nearly 100% of my digital music is ripped from CDs. There are some downloads and the ones I really liked, I bought the CD and ripped them again. Some I have written to audio CDs, and then ripped those. I just don't trust DRM.

[mwatson162]

That makes sense, I know one of the Artisits I looked up becuase I was going to try and re-download but none of their music was located on the Zune Marketplace.

I am sure the "right" for Zune to do this is somewhere in the fine print but it only adds to my disappointment with the program. Still seems to me if you "buy" something you should own it.

I guess for now all my purchases will either be CDs or from Amazon. At least they are DRM free but I am sure there is some way they can be rendered useless if someone decides to do so.

[Sven Johannsen]

I am sure the "right" for Zune to do this is somewhere in the fine print but it only adds to my disappointment with the program. Still seems to me if you "buy" something you should own it.
I don't think it so much the right of Zune to do this, but an artifact of the way music is treated. It is the artist (publisher?) that has the right to pull the product. Technically you don't own any of the music you purchased. Try giving it away and let the RIAA find out, if you don't believe that. You actually lease the music, so to speak. You have the right to listen to it, and have friends over to do so. Try setting up a PA system at a public park and playing the CDs you bought and you are treading on thin ice. That's a public performance. Doesn't matter if you charge for it or not. It is really pretty flakey, but there unfortunately some laws that need to be on the books to protect artists from those that would make it impossible for them to make a living producing those things we enjoy. Shame there are those that continuously bend the rules so that the rule makers feel the need to strengthen them, hindering the honest among us.

[Scarpad]

This has been a known isue. It's all tied to the way the Zune Software handles purchased tracks and rights. You would think that if you purchase a track it's yours to keep forever , even if in the future the track is no longer in the MP, well that's not the case. It's still checking usage rights and it makes your rights go away. So you never really own these tunes even if paid for, MS has known and done nothing about this. So I would not purchase tracks from the ZM. Zune Pass stuff at least have'nt bought the track. I would stick with Amazon, their prices are better and no DRM