Zune Marketplace, RIP

Going to try this to see if i can get my collection to start playing again. I assume i need groove music pass for it to work?

Isnt music on youy computer hard drive ? How can M S prevent access to  stored files ?

Well, the workarounds that allowed access to the Social even after that had been ended worked for months, even though I'm sure users here posted that info. So there's a precedent. In that case, basically I saw more of a gradual erosion of the Social's functionality: playcounts started getting heavily distorted and eventually not counted at all, badges stopped resembling reality and eventually vanished, and finally, messaging between Social users stopped. So I'm guessing something similar may happen here. It may just erode as a matter of neglect. I suspect that their system requires some degree of maintenance; someone needs to fix system errors that crop up, that would normally get reported. If the system isn't being used (at least, not officially ;-), then no one can report on those errors, and they go unfixed. It may be that they think that as long as they've updated our software to prevent normal access, that's as good as shutting down the Marketplace. But in the meantime, the Marketplace is still running on the basis of a lot of automation. So until they actually go and physically shut down whatever servers are providing that service, probably just converting Groove library music to DRM-ed WMA's, we'll have it. So it's just a question of how long it'll take for them to do that. I don't gather it's a big priority for them. There is such a thing as benign neglect, and Zune users have benefited from that for years now, ever since Microsoft decided to abandon the Zune platform.

Hi V_Vendetta,

Very probably. I think if you don't have a Zune/Groove Pass, then what would happen is that you'd get the Marketplace, and see all the music there, but you'd find that the music would require you to purchase with Zune Credits. Which, of course, don't exist anymore, so you won't be able to buy anything. But if you still have the Pass, then all your Pass downloads will work again, and you can download new stuff if you like. Just be aware that you'll need to copy and paste that material between the two Windows user accounts. And it may be that you'll need to sync that material to your Zune device while you're on the dummy account. For some reason, the material I copied and pasted didn't show up in my Zune library, despite my best efforts, until my Zune device was synced up again. So that might be a necessary step. I'd have to test it further to be sure.

Philip,

Yes, the music is on your harddrive. But if it's Zune Pass content, it's encrypted with DRM. That DRM prevents you from burning that music to CD's or playing it with any other software. The way this DRM works, it needs to verify that you're still a valid Zune Pass holder at least once every 30 days. If those 30 days pass, then the Zune software stops playing it. So no, MS doesn't delete it for you or access those stored files. (Give MS some credit here. It seems that our less enlightened brethren and sistern who have been using iTunes discovered, to their horror, that Apple's new cloud system literally deletes and destroys a lot of the user's existing library. MS has never tried anything like that!) BUT... eventually that DRM expires. Of course, none of this applies to any plain, old mp3's you have. Those will always be okay.

Thanks for some more details :: is this a conspiracy to prevent humans from enjoying    music !!