Zune Marketplace, RIP

Anonymous
2016-04-28T08:12:22+00:00

Officially, we all heard that the Zune Marketplace, and the grandfathered Zune Pass, was going to be shut down many months ago. Of course, those of us who were fans of the service weren't happy. Well, whether out of incompetence or benevolence (I'm hoping it was the latter), at least on my end, both of these lasted significantly longer. I was still getting my free 10 mp3's as late as January. Sadly, I was only able to redeem 7 of those 10 credits before it mysteriously stopped working, but it was in time to the get the last David Bowie album, so I'm not complaining. Still, the Zune Marketplace, reduced to merely its function of providing DRM-protected content you could sync with your Zune, still worked. And worked. And worked. I was beginning to think that perhaps the better angels of Microsoft's conscience prevailed, and those of us with Zune Pass, err, Xbox, err, Groove Passes would still be able to download unlimited content for our PC's and Zune devices. Tonight, April 27, 2016, that officially ended.

My Zune software had what I thought was a glitch. It shut down, and I was offered the choice of getting it debugged. But when I restarted the software, I noticed two changes. First, when you right click artists or albums, you no longer have the option of being taken to where that content is on the Zune Marketplace. Instead, it says (for example), "More about the Flaming Lips ONLINE." Clicking those links just brings you to the Groove homepage, and an offer to sign up. It doesn't matter what artist or album: every time, the link is to the Groove homepage, even if you're signed in, nothing specific to those artists.

And the worst of all: just like the Zune Social, the Zune Marketplace text at the top of the software is gone. Your options are now limited to Quickplay, Collection, and Device. Now, I still have a lot of stuff I've downloaded from the Marketplace on my PC and in my Zune device. I don't know what will happen with that. It still plays for now, I'm noticing. Though as a test, I tried to see if one track that hadn't been synced would still do so. No... A message about needing to check usage rights, and to sign on with a Zune Music Pass. When you right click on Zune Pass content, the DRM now says... "Unknown," when it used to offer more specifics about being usable for at least another month. We'll see what happens with what's still on the device. At the very least, as of now, all Zune Marketplace DRM-protected downloads still play in the software.

So... I'm disappointed to see the Zune Marketplace go. I have nothing against Groove... I've played around with it, both on my PC and my phone, but I don't think it's quite for me. The whole point of having music stored locally was that I wouldn't need to remained tethered to a network at all times. Plus, the best thing about the Zune player was its ability to shuffle. A lot of my music isn't available in Groove, so even with a shuffle function on Groove, I'd have to exclude a lot from my collection. I have some time to decide, I suppose. In any event, I suppose I'm lucky that I've been able to get this much functionality out of Zune, years after its death was declared. Even if it's now just a media player, that's fine, because it means I can listen to my massive music collection and podcasts without having to worry about dataplans and cellular access. As for the Zune Marketplace, it's been great having you. Checking out new music will be trickier now.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-18T21:58:18+00:00

    I see... Well, I'm game to try it. However, I suspect that we may now be too late. I don't know if this is what I think it is, but I noticed this afternoon, my PC's Zune software wasn't able to log in my ID. At all. Specifically, I got this message: "A secure channel couldn't be established. The server certificate name doesn't match the server address."

    Here's what I fear this may mean. Yes, the Marketplace is being killed off. But the software would still log in to verify the user's status as a Zune/Xbox/Groove Pass holder. This would still be important if you still have Zune Pass content on your PC, or if you have older DRM'ed WMA's you may have purchased back in the day. I think the way this works is, if your Zune software doesn't log in within a certain period of time, any DRM content you have on your machine, whether Zune Pass downloads, or legitimately purchased WMA's with DRM, will cease to play. As it is, I've already noticed that Zune Pass content that was unsynced prior to the Zune Marketplace shut down generally no longer syncs to your Zune device. (Oddly, there were a few exceptions, but that's mostly what's happened for me. So - no more syncing. Only plain jane non-DRM mp3's, wma's, and m4a's at this point will sync.) This content will still play from your software though. So the thing I'm kind of afraid of here is that this may be the beginning of the countdown that ultimately renders all our Zune Pass/DRM-WMA's useless.

    Or, it could just be a software glitch that's giving it some login difficulties. But you'd see why one might worry about such a thing. Has anyone else discovered that their Zune software is having login issues, perhaps getting the very same error message I mentioned above?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-18T20:56:55+00:00

    If you're creating a new account, wouldn't you have to pay for a new Zune/Xbox/Groove Pass?

    No - because (as I said) it's a new account ON YOUR PC, not a new signup for the Zune service. You're accessing exactly the same Zune account from the new PC account.

    Simply change your PC username (that you use to sign in to Windows) from Dave to Eric or Stan etc. and run the Zune software from the new PC login.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T18:04:45+00:00

    I hear you! I've done some digging around on Amazon and elsewhere, and it seems that dedicated portable music devices still are being made. You don't have to buy Neil Young's overpriced and overhyped Pono. Sony and a number of companies still make these devices. If my Zune 120 finally gives up the ghost... well, oddly enough, I do have a backup Zune 120, one my wife never uses. (She still uses the Zune 30!). But presumably, these devices have outlived any normal expected lifespan. So I'm just happy to have mine still working. I think what worries me is less the music, which, sure, I can sideload up on the first cell phone with a 128 GB capacity I buy. But rather, it's podcasts. I love having podcasts automatically downloaded, stored locally and synced. If I have to stream podcasts over my cell phone network while I drive, my data plan is going to explode. But manually storing and sideloading individual podcast episodes is going to be a huge hassle. Not looking forward to that.

    As for buying mp3's, I think the best option, if you listen to indie music, is eMusic. If you get a subscription, you can buy music downloads for significantly cheaper than Amazon, iTunes, etc. Typically, a single song is 49 to 79 cents, and full albums range from $5-$7. The trade-off, though, is that the major labels don't like eMusic anymore, and the labels connected to Beggars Banquet (4ad, Matador) don't either. So your selection can be a bit limited there. Still, they have Merge, Sub Pop, Ghostly, Mexican Summer, Darla, Saint Marie, and other labels I like. And more and more, artists are just self-releasing on their own digital vanity labels, so you can get a surprising amount of music given those constraints. I think it's the most cost-effective way of legally buying music and thereby supporting the artists.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T17:44:58+00:00

    If your solution works, wouldn't it kind of defeat the purpose? If you're creating a new account, wouldn't you have to pay for a new Zune/Xbox/Groove Pass? And wouldn't you lose whatever old WMA's are tied to your older account?

    FWIW, at least as of a week or two ago, I was sort of still able to access the Marketplace with my Zune 120's wireless interface. I rarely ever used it, even in the heyday of Zune, and of course the wireless is a big drain on my ever-shrinking battery's capacity, so I pretty much just permanently leave it shut down. But this seemed like a good time to see if it still worked. What I saw was that stuff still up there, so the Marketplace's architecture might still be up. But, all I could do was look. I couldn't download anything, or put it in my cart. So I don't know what the system is basing its lists of the most popular downloads on.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T16:06:22+00:00

    I've still been managing to use the Zune Marketplace....

    When you run the Zune software and it tells you there's an update, that (and whatever it changes to disable the marketplace) is somehow linked to your PC user account.

    If you create a new user account and run the Zune software from there, the Marketplace magically reappears and functions normally.

    I fear messing _with the software. Will screwup any remaining functionality __ let us know if your  trick really continues towork for you

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