Zune Pass

[TaborMallory]

I took up about 10 gigs for music, 1 gig for miscellaneous video clips, and the rest as an external hard drive. It's really nice to have, because our computer has a 75 gb hard drive and I have a very nice portable hard drive.

Doubling as an external hard drive, eh? Well, that makes sense. For a minute I thought you had a ridiculous amount of music.

I'll have a ridiculous amount of music when either iTunes stops being stupid with file storage and access, or when I simply buy my own computer that doesn't have 3gbs left on the hard drive.

 

[jasoncyrus]

What do you think of the Zune Pass and would you consider getting a Zune with this in mind?

I have a Zune, and the Zune Pass, and I think it's fantastic.

One thing to note is that one subscription can be used on three PCs and two Zune devices. My wife and I share the same account, and can each download whatever music we like. That actually makes it an even better value for us.

The nice thing about having the subscription is that there are a lot of albums I wouldn't buy, but that I might want to listen to once or twice. I can either download them, or stream them and listen to the full album online (including from the Zune player if I have a wi-fi connection).

I don't care that the music will go away if I stop subscribing, because in order to purchase the music I've downloaded, I'd have to spend thousands of dollars. Which isn't going to happen, subscription or not, so all I would "lose" is something I never would have had in the first place.

But I want to pay for my music in some way or another. I feel like the artists deserve at least something from me. Fifteen dollars a month is not much to ask.

The subscription music plans pay licensing fees for the music to the labels, who then have to distribute it to the artists. It works similarly to radio in that regard. Unless you only buy your CDs at concerts, you're just as likely to get money to the artists on a subscription plan as you are buying the music outright.

well considering most people keep their music colelctions for upwards of a decade. thats 120 months. Assuming you have 1500 tracks are a dollar a piece, 1500 bucks. 1500 tracks for 15 bucks per month for 120 months. thats 1800 dollars. So yeah, in the long run, its better to single buy each track.

EDIT: I pity those who have yet to discover the glory of a terabyte internal backup drive and 500gig main drive...

 

[Virgil]

well considering most people keep their music colelctions for upwards of a decade. thats 120 months. Assuming you have 1500 tracks are a dollar a piece, 1500 bucks. 1500 tracks for 15 bucks per month for 120 months. thats 1800 dollars. So yeah, in the long run, its better to single buy each track.

EDIT: I pity those who have yet to discover the glory of a terabyte internal backup drive and 500gig main drive...

I currently have 6910 tracks in my collection (which is only my stuff - my wife has her own library). Like I said, having a subscription plan allows you to 'try out' a lot more music - stuff you'd never even consider if you had to pay for it - and that really changes the way you listen to music.

 

[darthzew]

Theres this thing out there and it's called "Torrents". It's an odd fantastical thing, perhaps you should try them one day as an alternative to your Zune Pass dilemma. Oh by the way, it's all free.

He's gonna say that's illegal.
BUT WAIT! IT'S ONLY ILLEGAL TO DISTRIBUTE THESE FILES!
So yeah.

I'm not going to tread on the toes of what's illegal or not; I'm not a lawyer.

But I want to pay for my music in some way or another. I feel like the artists deserve at least something from me. Fifteen dollars a month is not much to ask.

Yes, yes it is. Especially since most "music" is a load of crud these days. *cough*eurovision*cough*.

Plus you've totally missed the point of my post. Locked files = customer abuse. You may aswell rent a cdr from your mates.

At least if you got cdrs burned you'dbe able to keep the bloody things.

There is something nice about being able to keep things, but I don't care too much about DRM and all that. If I really wanted an album, I'd put in the effort to buy it or get it from a friend. But with the Zune Pass, I'm able to try out stuff with little to no effort. I've gotten to know some great artists I never would have even downloaded from a Torrent site.

PS: It's not like you're just getting today's music. You can get older stuff, which IS worth paying for.

 

[jasoncyrus]

Well if you wanna waste your money on a pointless subscription when there are plenty free options, (music channels, myspace, hell even youtube for the more popular/well known items), then be my guest.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

There is something nice about being able to keep things, but I don't care too much about DRM and all that. If I really wanted an album, I'd put in the effort to buy it or get it from a friend. But with the Zune Pass, I'm able to try out stuff with little to no effort. I've gotten to know some great artists I never would have even downloaded from a Torrent site.

PS: It's not like you're just getting today's music. You can get older stuff, which IS worth paying for.

you will care very much when they decide to revoke your license or just not allow you to access it for whatever reason they decide to revoke your ability to use it.

DRM is bad in any way shape or form. it's basically someone being too lazy in order to provide you with good service

as for me i'd never use a service like that, i'd rather go out and buy the cds and then encode it and stick it on my ipod, mine at 30 gigs is filled up, should get a 120 gig at one point and see how long it takes me to fill that one

 

[scotth266]

Snip.

Virgil, please forgive me for this, but I cannot contact you any other way. The messenger on the Escapist seems to randomly decide that it won't send messages: after I click send it just sits and stares at me, and won't send the message. Whether this happens seems to be entirely random.

Sorry once again for bugging you like this, I would have PMed you this info, but as you can tell that's sort of impossible for the moment