Microsoft

Universal Music’s New Biz Model: Lawsuits and Extortion!

November 20, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Unversal Music, the mega-major record label that thinks so little of its fans that their CEO, Doug Morris, recently said that iPods were: “just repositories for stolen music,” has evidentally hit upon a new business model: lawsuits and extortion.

Apparently making money by putting good music out there with a price point that might entice people just isn’t good enough. Because, of course, we are all thieves. So instead of that, they’ve decided to go a different route. Instead of using their artists to make money, they’ve decided to fall back upon the lawyers. Hopefully, the lawyers will get a better royalty rate.

Let’s review, shall we?

Fear and Loathing in Zuneland: The Social Has Been Cancelled

November 16, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

On Tuesday Microsoft began welcoming the world to ‘The Social’. It’s Thursday morning and I still have no clue what ‘The Social’ is. I’ve scoured The Google for two full days to no avail. The Zune hype is making me dizzy.

If you’ve been following our Zune coverage here at Medialoper you probably know that we had pretty low expectations for the Zune. As unlikely as it may seem, I think the Zune launch may have actually turned out worse than we expected. Here’s a round-up of some of the Zune “highlights” from the past few days:

Zune’s Funny Money: Microsoft Points Explained (For the Non-Gamer)

November 13, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

After months of hype Microsoft will finally release the Zune media player tomorrow. We assume that someone, somewhere will actually buy the damn thing. If you’re one of those soon-to-be Zune owners there’s one last thing you should know before you run off to stand in line at the local Best Buy. When the Zune Marketplace launches later this week you won’t be able to buy songs with your local currency. That’s right, your money is no good in the Zune music store. Instead, you’ll have to convert real money to Microsoft Points, and then use those points to purchase songs. Of all of the puzzling Zune “features”, this one has to be the strangest.

The Final Reason I Won’t Buy A Zune: The Sin Tax

November 9, 2006 by Jim Connelly

We’ve been pretty hard on Zune here, noting several issues before it has even launched.. Nevertheless, I had still toyed with buying one, just to review it. It only seemed fair to maybe give it a try. I mean, after surviving the Prism DuroSport 6000, how bad could it be? But forget all of that, because I read something last night that ensures that I will never ever buy one. Microsoft is giving a percentage of the money from sales of Zune to Universal Music.

Ah yes, the latest representation of an an incredibly anti-consumer trend: the Sin Tax on a consumer device.

Microsoft Goes The Last Few Feet

November 7, 2006 by Jim Connelly

We rag on Microsoft a lot around here. Zune, particularly, has come in for a lot of pre-sale criticism from these quarters. So we should praise them when they do something right. And today’s announcement that they have set up a deal with several studios to offer downloads directly to their Xbox Live service in just a couple of weeks smacks a whole hell of a lot of doing things right.

It’s an idea that only those who instinctively dislike everything Microsoft does could hate.

The DRM Virus Is Spreading – A Pandemic May Be Near

September 20, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Last week we were startled to learn about Zune’s viral DRM system. As it turns out, the whole thing may have been a miscommunication on the part of Microsoft’s Zune Insider. But that doesn’t mean that Zune isn’t responsible for spreading the DRM virus. On the contrary, there’s mounting evidence that Zune is directly responsible for a mutation of the virus.

With the release of Zune, Microsoft has intentionally turned its back on its previous DRM standard – the PlaysForSure system. As a result, PlaysForSure partners are starting to drop support for Microsoft’s old DRM system in favor of their own proprietary DRM systems.

On Monday Real Networks and SanDisk announced that the Rhapsody music service will be switching from PlaysForSure to Real’s own Rhapsody DNA system. In an attempt to emulate Apple’s iTunes/iPod experience, SanDisk will release a new player that will be tightly integrated with the Rhapsody music service. The move is designed to position both companies against the upcoming Zune Marketplace as well as iTunes.

Microsoft Insider Clarifies Zune’s Sharing Limitations

September 19, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

It’s been four days since we noted that Zune’s wireless file sharing sounds an awful lot like a form of viral DRM that may be in violation of the Creative Commons licenses. This afternoon Cesar, the Zune Insider, has stepped up to clarify his original comments:

I misspoke (mis-blogged) on last week’s post. We don’t actually wrap all songs up in DRM. Zune to Zune Sharing doesn’t change the DRM on a song, and it doesn’t impose DRM restrictions on any files that are unprotected. If you have a song – say that you got ‘free and clear’ – Zune to Zune Sharing won’t apply any DRM to that song. The 3-day/3-play limitation is built into the device, and it only applies on the Zune device: when you receive a song in your Inbox, the file remains unchanged. After 3 plays or 3 days, you can no longer play the song; however, you can still see a listing of the songs with the associated metadata.

Zune’s Big Innovation: Viral DRM

September 15, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Now that Microsoft has released some hard facts about Zune we can finally begin to sort out how much of an impact the product might have on the digital music market. For weeks we’ve been hearing rumors about how Zune’s wireless capabilities will be used to enable new types of music sharing and discovery. It’s the one feature that could potentially set Zune apart from the iPod.

Unfortunately Zune’s wireless music sharing is turning out to be one of those features that seemed better when it was just a rumor. While Zune users will be able share music with friends, there’s a catch (isn’t there always). As Jim noted earlier, recipients of shared songs will only be able to listen to them three times or for three days, whichever comes first. It sort of sounds like a really bad tire warranty.

Why I Won’t Swoon For Zune

September 14, 2006 by Jim Connelly

This is going to be pretty short and sweet. I’m sure that Kirk may have a blow-by-blow analysis of all of Zune’s shortcomings forthcoming, but I just want to do a quick take on what is supposed to make Zune an “iPod Killer:” — that killer app that would coax people like me away from purchasing yet another iPod — the wireless song-sharing.

Why Zune & iPod Should Have the Radio On (Radio On!)

August 14, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Last week, I wrote a post about ways that Zune could actually be an iPod killer, if Microsoft did things like
not have DRM’d music, integrated wireless, and supported AM/FM and satellite radio.

However, according to Zune Luv?, this last suggestion means that I have lost the plot . . .