REDMOND, WA- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) The software giant has decided to cease operations of its outdated Zune music service.
It has not been long enough for generations to move but it didn’t happen yesterday either.
Nine years ago, back in the 14th of November 2006, Microsoft launched the Zune music player, a potential rival to Apple’s iPod. Unfortunately, after 6 years of low demand, they were seized in 2012.
However, the music service had no obvious reason to be discontinued, so it’s on until this very day and it will be like that until the 15th of the coming November.
Zune becomes part of Groove
After that, we expect to see Microsoft’s Xbox and Zune music services being embodied to the Groove, which is already basically a unified music client for Microsoft devices.
The former required monthly fee on Zune or Xbox Music Pass was $9.99 and it will be the same with the Groove. Quarterly pass-holders also get switched to a monthly pass and subscribers who have chosen to pay an annual fee will now have to pay a reduced price of $99.90.
What’s interesting with Groove, is that it lets the user store any kind of music files onto OneDrive and listen to them from a Groove-compatible device, which includes a vast variety of such devices.
Of course, that is not nearly as good as Zune Marketplace, thanks to which you could buy and stream music, movies and listen up to ten free songs every month.
Can I still sync music on and off my device?
And for those of you who own a Zune player, even though I doubt there are many of you, the following question is highly expected: “Can I still sync mp3 files on and off my device?”. Well, you’ll be glad to find out that the answer is yes, you can. And may the gods of music be with you.
Source: Microsoft
