Zune Marketplace, RIP

Well, I think it may have now happened to me. The Zune Pass content on my PC won't play. Even though the Zune software is signed into Microsoft, when I try to play any of it, I get an error message: "Can't Play. Need to check usage rights. Please sign into Zune. To see if there's more information about this error, click Web Help.  ERROR CODE C00D1385." And of course, the link is to a page that no longer exists, redirected ultimately to an empty Xbox page. Again, the Zune software is, indeed, signed in. I've noticed a few more glitches in the sign in, but it did ultimately go through. (There's a trick you can do if you have trouble signing in, btw. Pull up your browser, go to a Microsoft Live page where you can sign in with your ID. Do so. That seems to help the Zune software successfully sign in.)

I decided to check to see if the Zune Pass content still on my Zune 120 plays and... so far, so good. I have an Alice in Chains album playing right now. So ... for the moment, Zune Pass content synced to the device before the dismantling of the Marketplace still plays. On my PC, as of tonight, nada.

I would love to be corrected by someone more in the know. But MY GUESS is the following. When the Marketplace was killed off, that removed the Zune software's means of verifying that the user still had a valid Zune Pass. It was, from that moment forward, as if the user wasn't signing in at all when they were using the Zune software, because though the software was indeed signing in, there was no Marketplace infrastructure on the other end. Normally, when you right click on Zune Pass content, and click Properties, you see a field at the bottom saying "DRM: expires X/X/XX", and that date is usually one month after the day you look at it. Well, after the Marketplace was dismantled, we saw that field change to "Unknown" for everything. So if you fail to sign in, the Zune Pass content continues to play, but only up to one month from the last time you logged into the Marketplace, since that was the last benchmarked expiration date.

The only question is whether or how this will effect any Zune Pass content remaining on our Zune devices. My assumption is that Microsoft built something into the DRM of that content to eventually expire on the devices as well. Otherwise, a person could get a Zune Pass, load up their device, end their Zune Pass, and walk around with up to 110 GB of free music. I doubt they would have let that happen.

Now, I could be wrong about at least some of this. For all I know, I could fire up my PC tomorrow, and find that everything works again just like it always did. There was a period of a few days a little over a week ago where my Zune software wouldn't sign in, and then suddenly it was able to once again. But given that the Marketplace was ended about one month ago, this seems timed right for the final end of Zune Pass content. I've managed to liquidate a majority of that content, and that process is still ongoing for me: what do I want to keep permanently, what can I feasibly purchase, what can I live without. So this doesn't hit me as badly as it could have if it all happened in one fell swoop. I've spent a lot of money at eMusic.com. (They're having a "double your credits" sale, FWIW. Their albums are normally $5-$7, but with these booster packs, it's like you're paying half that, so that's a pretty economical way of replacing Zune Pass content legally.) But... as others have said here, this is very depressing. The Zune platform was a great, economical way to get new music, and adapting to a new system that relies on streaming is annoying. Still, the Zune device and software remains, for me, the best way to manage my considerable digital music collection, and certainly I know of no better way to manage podcasts. I'll just have to do it without the benefits of the Zune Marketplace and Zune Pass. So long, Zune Pass, and thanks for all the fish.

V, if you still have your music pass (even the old Zune pass, like I do) it is automatically considered a Groove Music Pass; with it, yes you can download music to your Windows Phone and play it offline. I do this all the time on my HTC One M8 for Windows. You can also purchase DRM free MP3s from your handset, but as long as you have a pass and the song or albums you're looking for are available, you can download them for offline play. Just like the Zune you have to connect on occasion to update the DRM on your phone for the files, but it's about 30 days like Zune I've noticed. It sucks that the Zune marketplace is gone, like most everyone I still use it, especially on long motorcycle trips where I don't want to burn my phone battery down, but there is recourse. Hopefully, enough negative feedback will get Microsoft to change their minds, but I doubt it.

Already? Well, I suppose it has been a month or so... Did you officially end your Zune Pass? That content still seems to play for me, at least for now. But I will tell you, I've spent a lot of the last month trying to liquidate as much of that stuff as possible. In some cases, this means deleting stuff I couldn't possibly ever see myself wanting so badly that I'd spend extra money for it. In other cases, this has meant getting around to buying stuff I should have bought ages ago, like the Langley Schools Music Project album. All in all, I estimate that I've gotten rid of half of that stuff so far, so roughly 1400 singles and albums down to 700?

FWIW, the sign-in issue I mentioned above seemed to resolve itself, with no real effort on my part. It seems that it really was a glitch after all. My Zune software now automatically logs in as it always did, and the Zune Pass content still works... at least, as I said, for now. But I expect that it won't last much longer.

My zune pass music stopped playing yesterday on my computer :'(

Well I decided today to try just that: I'm going to cancel my subscription and see what happens to my thousands of Zune Pass songs.  I just couldn't justify paying $10/month to keep up, but not add to, my collection of music from the past.

When it started out, and I too was an early adopter, Zune Music Pass was the best deal out there, and I took advantage of the free 10 songs/month, but I find that I rarely use Groove now to stream music.  There are many and mostly better streaming services out there and are free.

So I'll let you know if in the next month my music becomes unplayable.