Zune 'Buy from FM' to launch with 450 stations

A couple weeks ago, after being briefed on the new Zune, a colleague described some of its features to his teenage daughter. She responded positively to the Wi-Fi download feature, but was skeptical about the "Buy from FM" concept that lets people tag songs they hear on the Zune's built-in radio for later purchase.

Would lots of radio stations actually support this feature or would it be relegated to a narrow niche like XM radio? (Her example, not mine.)

Tag songs for later purchase with the Zune's 'Buy from FM' feature, available later this month.

(Credit: Microsoft)

She need not have worried. On Monday, Microsoft announced that many of the largest radio conglomerates in the U.S., including giant Clear Channel, would support the RDS tagging technology necessary for this feature.

Let me just get this out of the way: I find commercial music radio to be way too narrow and repetitive, I hardly ever listen to it, and I don't get any new music recommendations from it. But I'm in the minority. A Microsoft-commissioned study recently showed that more than 60 percent of music listeners still use radio as their primary source for discovering new tunes.

So this is a win for Microsoft. While Clear Channel was rightly reviled earlier this decade for allegedly accepting money and other compensation from brokers to play particular tracks, it's still the big gun of U.S. radio, with 9 percent ownership. (That's about 1,200 stations.) Other partners announced Monday include Citadel (with more than 200 stations), CBS Radio (with 140 stations), Entercom (110 stations), and Cox (86 stations).

When the feature launches on September 16, it will immediately work with 450 stations across the U.S., with many more to come.

[RojAvon]

Why is this news? iTunes has has a similar "tagging" feature available for months and it actually with a service that millions of people use as opposed to the more or less failed Zune.

[catch23]

This type of tagging feature has been around long before iTunes copied it.
It now allows direct purchase, from a radio signal.
Which you can't do from iTunes. Please learn to read.

And why is that while Windows is enormously more popular then the Mac, people don't consider Apple a failure with computers? It is only where Apple holds the lead that MS alone is considered a failure.
Hell, Vista has 2x the users in 1.5 years then Apple has put together in 20+, but morons still call it a failure.
I really don't think you understand what that word means...

[MattRosoff]

This is news because (a.) the Zune has a built-in FM receiver, the iPod doesn't and (b) the Zune has a subscription model so you can hear any song immediately from any Wi-Fi hotspot. The iPod model is a kludge--you have to send the tag from a separate radio, then download each song individually. Plus, older iPods don't have Wi-Fi so you can't hear the song on demand. I think this is a really cool feature, credit where credit is due. I only wish Microsoft had launched Zune with some of this cool stuff--the first two iterations were kind of wasted space.

[ncalishome]

It's news to me that iTunes has radio tagging... After searching it looks like you need to buy a tagging enabled HD radio? They've sold "millions" of these?

My question is why Apple needs weeks of buzz and a media event complete with Jack Johnson to roll out absolutely nothing revolutionary.

[zunezrok]

RojAvon. I have too disagree with you. The zune has far more innovative features than the ipod.

[zunezrok]

RojAvon. I have too disagree with you. The zune has far more innovative features than the ipod.