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
    2016-05-02T02:39:21+00:00

    I know, right? I certainly can't afford to purchase every album I'm interested in. And if I am interested in something, I'd like to be able to listen to it a few times in full before making that call. I'm not always online or at a place where I can get online easily. My cell phone is fine for downloading pure text for my email, but I'm trying to keep my data usage low. I can't imagine what I'd have to spend every month to stream all that I listen to, even that's putting aside the obvious problem that a major chunk of what I listen to isn't even available on Groove (because it's out-of-print, too obscure, etc.), or the secondary problem that I occasionally work in places with poor reception. It's a million times more convenient to just download what I'm interested in when I do have good internet connectivity, and then be able to take my Zune wherever I happen to go, whether that's on the road or in my basement office. The demise of the Zune Marketplace means I can't do that anymore, unless I'm willing to pirate mp3's from shady websites. I might do that once in a while if it's something rare and not commercially available, but I'd really hate to have to make that my primary means of exploring new music.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-02T02:31:19+00:00

    Well, you can, but only in the trivial sense that you can purchase mp3's outright from Groove and sync those to your Zune device. But that's no different than whatever you could purchase from eMusic, Amazon, iTunes or Google Music. With the demise of the Zune Marketplace, the only way to enjoy the unlimited-listen-to-whatever-you-want is with Groove, either through the Groove website or the Groove app. Your Zune device has no direct functionality with Groove.

    Though as I said, I've noticed that content I downloaded before the demise of the Zune Marketplace still seems to work. But I wouldn't be surprised if that if it all stopped the moment I end my subscription. In any case, given that eMusic subscriptions offer the most affordable mp3's purchase anywhere, especially with their occasional Booster Pack sales that double your credits, I'm pretty much switching to buying all my future mp3's from eMusic. I'll be spending the next week or so figuring out what Zune Pass content I can't live without, and if eMusic has it, purchasing it from them to replace it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-01T20:19:06+00:00

    I poked all  around it and it doesn't look like it. I liked Zune specifically for the ability to download the wma's to my computer.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-01T19:09:50+00:00

    But can you still download for offline playback with groove music pass because that's what i used. Someone needs to find a way to still sync with zune!

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-04-30T07:22:31+00:00

    Yes, absolutely. You can buy music directly through the "Microsoft Store," or through the Groove player. It used to be that you had to do it on a Windows 8.1 or higher PC or a Windows Phone, but I think you can do it through the regular Groove website or even the Microsoft Store itself. I think the option is labeled something like "keep for offline payback." You're essentially just directly buying the mp3's. But I suppose you do get the advantage that if you have a Windows Phone, it's automatically going to sync up, and you won't have to reconstruct playlists you may already be using. Otherwise, it's no different than buying mp3's through Amazon or eMusic or Google Music, or... dare I say it... m4a's through iTunes. I only use that last option if a piece of music is literally available nowhere else, because, interestingly, even Apple fanboys will typically admit now that the iTunes software is a bloated piece of garbage. The nice thing about Amazon, eMusic, Google Music, and yes, the Microsoft Store, is that you don't have use to a buggy, bloated piece of software to download your purchase.

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