Comments on: New Zune ad: It costs $30,000 to fill up your iPod

In a new TV ad for Zune Pass, Microsoft continues to call Apple products expensive. In the iPod's case, very, very expensive.

[gnoah]

If you use Tunebite on your Zune pass or Napster music it it usable forever on any machine. My two daughters and wife all use one Napster subscription. All three have IPods. One daughter downloaded two hundred songs in on week.

There is no way I would ever use Itunes..

[gnoah]

If you use Tunebite on your Zune pass or Napster music it it usable forever on any machine. My two daughters and wife all use one Napster subscription. All three have IPods. One daughter downloaded two hundred songs in on week.

There is no way I would ever use Itunes..

[icemage06]

I could fill my iod up for a lot cheaper than $30,000. Fill it up with movies and tv shows.

[ModerateVoice]

I use neither, and I will continue to use neither. I buy my mp3's from Amazon. It's always been DRM free, so I can load them onto as many pc's/devices as I want at any time (and iTunes is now DRM-free as well to compete with Amazon). The prices were always cheaper and even though they now have a similar price strategy, I've only come across one song that was over $0.99 in 2 years. The customer service is great; I was actually able to re-download some songs free after I called customer support when I had a computer problem that made me lose some songs. Amazon's download app is also very small and light on resources because they kept it simple and didn't include a player and a sync system since I already have all of that on my pc anyway. I've never understood why people are hooked on the iTunes store except for the people who, understandably so, are afraid to jailbreak their apple devices and void their warrantees. Jailbreak fear and ignorance of the alternatives are all I can attribute iTunes' success to and the same will go for Zune Pass. Fear I can understand and even empathize with, but ignorance of the facts I can't.

[hobbsax1]

I personally love the Zune Pass feature. I have had 3 Zunes (the original 30GB, an 8GB, and now another 8GB...the 1st 8GB didn't take too well to being dropped in a drink)

I don't see it as $1.50 per song. I see it as $1.00/song (10 songs free/month) and then the service cost me $5/month to rent anything I want. Considering I used to buy around 50 CDs/year, I am now spending about 1/3 of what I did for the same amount of content.

I also like Zune Pass because it lets me try out different things without having to buy them. I understand some people use the free online services but I almost never listen to music at my PC, I always listen to my music on the plane, in the car, or while exercising/outside.

I have friends who love iTunes and others who love Zune Pass. One is not necessarily better than the other. To me, I pay the $15/month fee and then don't think about it any more. When I did use iTunes (I had a shuffle) I would sit there and debate whether to spend $1/song for each song I downloaded (I downloaded very few). Kind of like an all expenses paid vacation where you pay and can then enjoy (but it might cost more if you don't do much) or pay as you go which might (or might not) be cheaper.

To each his/her own.

[shahamee]

@ hobbsax1, I really like the way your rationalized the monthly fee. I think of it the same way. I also look at it like cable. You pay your monthly fee, you watch all the tv you possibly can. But the gravy on top is that you get to keep 10 of the songs DRM free forever, and you get to take your "cable TV" with you every where you go. Oh yeah, you also get to use it on up to 3 PCs and 3 Devices. So if you have friends/family or roommates it ends up $5 a person for unlimited music for everyone. Kind of a no brainer.

[bluemist9999]

To me, the math is pretty simple.

If, on average, you purchase more than 15 songs a month, and only play songs on your portable music player, then the Zune Pass is a better deal, since you will spend less with it than with iTunes.

If, on average, you purchase less than 15 songs a month, or play songs on things besides your portable music player, then iTunes is a better deal. For me, this is true.

All of this assumes the songs you want are available both for the Zune Pass and within iTunes.

Other than that, what did I miss?

[shahamee]

I think the only thing you are missing is that Zune gives you both options. You dont have to sign up for a zune pass, but you will enjoy all the functionality of your device more if you do. If you own a Zune you can follow the same pricing model as iTunes and buy songs individually.

Zune gives you a choice. iTunes doesnt.

[ViEtNiNjA007]

Cnet people, if you ever went to the MP3 section of Cnet, Jasmine France, associate editor, makes a good point for subscription services.

Why do people pay $100 a month for TV, but not $15 for music?

[macplow]

or you could join the majority of people who get all their music for free from limewire.
duh.

[Firehazel]

Um this is America, not EVERY SINGLE PERSON buys ALL of their music, I'm pretty sure that everyone D/Ls at least ONE song illegally, not including LimeWire.

[Yerch]

I guess what I'm curious about is if this subscription service is so great then what is the added value of getting to keep ten songs a month? There are dozens of people on here arguing that the subscription model is awesome because, hey, who would want to actually own their music and not have to redownload the same album fifteen times because they dumped it to make room and now want to hear it again? But if that is really true - if the subscription model is great and you and Microsoft really believe that then there is nothing whatsoever to be gained by being able to keep ten songs a month. There would never be a need to keep anything. Yet, somehow, it does make it better, doesn't it? Because in all honesty you know that you just want to own your music.

[madheroesfan]

lol he has red eyes. Microsoft you are so low. you can't sell your product which the general public has no idea exists so in an attempt to get people onto your side you try to badmouth your competitor? ever heard of of John Howard? he tried to become Australia's Prime Minister one more time when everyone said he should quit, and he used the same "bashing the other guy" theme. and guess what happened? he lost his own electorate to a TV presenter, and that means he can't even be in parliament at all. think about it.

oh, and your subscription services are total crap. whats wrong with normal money?

[zunelover96]

The Zune Pass songs that you keep are the songs you keep if you stop using hte pass, you still get all the music you could ever want and if you want to quit, then you still have ten songs for every month you were subscribed.

[shahamee]

Fanboys are just arguing because Jobs doesnt offer a subscription. If I told a Netflix user that they could pay $15 a month, and order as many movies as they wanted per month, recieve them immediatly, keep them in their home for as long as they paid their subscription fee, and in addition keep ten of those movies a month forever if they ever decided to quit the subscription, i think they would be pretty stoked. Same concept, but with music. CDs cost just as much as DVDs.

[kcotham]

That is the most retarded commercial ever. No one, but no one buys ALL their music off of the iTunes store. And the Zune subscription service only lets you keep a few songs a month, not indefinitely. Microsoft needs to really rethink their choice of advertising agencies.

[atomicbomb156]

A thing called bittorrent exists. There is no way in hell that I could afford paying for music considering how much I listen to and how much I earn. Filling up an 80GB mp3 player would cost a lot of money legally, subscription or not.

torrents= free discographies and cds. End of discussion

[Yerch]

Conversation overheard between two ZunePass subscribers:

ZPS1: Dude! I met the most amazing girl. We're like totally in love. I think she's the one.

ZPS2: Really? That's great. But how can you say she's the one?

ZPS1: It's true, man. I swear she made me this mix CD and it totally blew my mind. It was like I was totally unfamiliar with those songs yet from the very first listen it was as if they were all old favorites. It's like she knows me better than I know myself.

ZPS2: Wow! That's a heck of an endorsement. So what did you do?

ZPS1: I made her a Zune playlist and had her come to my apartment and sit in front of one of my three corporate licensed and approved playing mediums to hear it. She felt exactly the same way. It's the real thing.

ZPS2: Sounds like it. Good luck.

[shahamee]

Conversation between Yerch and a ZunePass subscriber:

ZPS: Dude I met this amazing girl. We're like totally in love. I think she's the one.

Yerch: Really? That's great! I've never been with a girl :( I had a smart mouth to the last one that actually spoke to me, and I started talking about stuff I didnt know. For example I thought if you downloaded great music from the ZuneMarketplace it wasn't DRM free. Little did I know the 10 I could get for free a month with the ZunePass are DRM free and I could have burnt her a CD. Plus, when I am cruising with her in my car, or at her house or mine, I could hook up my Zune to a stereo or tv and listen to EVERYTHING on it. And everytime there is a new song she liked i could download it for her straight from my wi-fi enabled Zune and we could listen to it right away. Well good luck with your girl ZPS, I hope it works out. Maybe if I bought a Zune, you could let me share your ZunePass, since up to 3 devices can be on one account...

[deepen05]

lol, 30,000 dollars to fill an Ipod? thats ridiculous!! Do you know how much i have paid for my songs??

$0.00. Limewire PRO off of torrents baby!!!

I have filled both my Ipod Nano, and Iphone for FREE!!

[oRADoTREV]

HAHA... this is just another stab of how much microsuck.... oops I ment microsoft really sucks. Mircosoft is just trying to hard to compete with Apple... Do me a favor and go to youtube and look at the comments for this Microsoft zune commercial. There are three of them and all the comment consists of how much this is a scam/ rip off/ unoriginal. The microsoft zune has also locked all responses to the video to because the public speaks the truth on how they suck. besides i have over 16 gigs on my 120g iPod that i bought a week ago and i have spend not $30,000, not $14.99 a month but "cough cough" $0.00. people dont care about the ad because they all ready dont pay fur music. Especially people with Mac's... Pc users might be forced to use the zume pass due to viruses haha, but i wont get into that... So good luck microsuck but nothing you ever do will be better then Apple.

[xoxjojobxox]

I'm not an apple fan at all, I do own an ipod but I don't buy music from itunes. I don't use zunepass either,
so I might be wrong.
But it looks like you pay $14.99 a month
and you keep 10 songs.
Isn't that over a dollar a song?
some itunes songs are less then a dollar, although many are more.
isn't this about the same price?