Zune Pass Price Coming Down?

[Adam Krebs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-27/microsoft-may-cut-zune-streaming-music-price-executive-says.html' target='_blank'>http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...utive-says.html</a><br /><br /></div><p>"<em>Microsoft Corp., the world&rsquo;s largest software maker, may cut the monthly fee it charges for streaming music on its Zune portable player, senior product manager Terry Farrell said in an interview. Zune Pass, which features unlimited music streaming and 10 song downloads a month, now costs $14.99. Farrell didn&rsquo;t say by how much Microsoft may cut the service&rsquo;s price. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely a challenging business,&rdquo; Farrell said, referring to competition in online music. Microsoft is contending with rivals that offer music at little or no charge, while striving to erode Apple Inc.&rsquo;s lead in the market for digital music players and downloadable songs. RealNetworks Inc.&rsquo;s Rhapsody service in April slashed the monthly price of a premium music service to $10 from $14.99.</em>"</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1276101409.usr495.jpg" style="border: 0;" width="500" /></p><p>This would be great if true, but I'm not sure that cost is what's holding people back from buying into the subscription service. Zune Pass is already a great deal with 10 credits/$15 unlimited, and I'm not sure how Rhapsody is faring with its price cut. I know that Napster hasn't seen a huge uptick since it went <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/napster-relaunching-again-5-per-month-plus-five-to-download/" target="_blank">5 credits/$5 a month</a>. I think the problem is more in <a href="http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/23380/zune-pass-a-sheep-in-wolves-clothing.html" target="_blank">how to market</a> such a service, which all three of these companies have <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5251027/wes-moss-is-the-new-super-douchey-face-of-microsofts-zune" target="_blank">struggled</a> with in the past.</p>

[USArcher]

I agree that the current Zune Pass pricing is a good deal considering the # of tracks you get to keep in addition to multiple PC licensing model. But its one of those "psychological" things. As I mentioned in another post, I think for Windows Phone 7, the Zune team might want to consider a lower tier Zune Pass: (1) device/streaming...maybe $4.99. So that person who uses iTunes primarily on their PC/Mac probably wouldn't feel like that have to make a hard decision..go with iTunes or go with Zune. That gives Zune a chance over time to convert a user.

[schrimp]

This is my second Zune in just over a year.. I had my first one for almost 2 weeks before I had a harddrive failure.. Took it back to the store and was given a new one.. This one lasted just a month over the year warranty and again HARD DRIVE FAILURE. I am going to IPOD.. No wonder everyone has quit selling Zune.. NOT Worth the price.

Headed off elsewhere and Im gonna tell everyone NOT TO BUY A ZUNE>

[Sven Johannsen]

Whatever. My and my wife's original 30G hard drive Zunes are still working fine, my 80G hard drive Zune works fine. Our 16G Zunes work fine and my 32G Zune HD works fine. Since they don't even make HD based Zunes anymore, and haven't for some time, not sure hard drive issues should really be much of a concern for folks that are kinda tough on them. If you really want to deal with iTunes, I guess, more power to ya.