Microsoft Reduced To Using An iPod To Sell Zune Pass Music Subscriptions
Music subscriptions have never quite caught on. Even market leader Rhapsody has managed to amass a mere 800,000 willing to pay $14.95 a month for its service. People seem to prefer to own music and even at 99 cents per track, how many more than 15 tracks a month does the average fan want to add to their collection?
In a new attempt to prove the value of music subscriptions, Microsoft has produced a TV ad that uses fuzzy math to show what a great deal it's Zune Pass can be. And in the tech giant's latest example of Apple-envy chose an iPod instead of its own Zune player to help make it's point.
“fuzzy math”? It seems pretty straight forward if you ask me. I have cable for unlimited TV, why wouldn’t I pay a subscription for unlimited music. Why do I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here? Subscription is a no-brainer. As far as I can see, there are only two down-sides: 1. I can’t burn it onto a CD (that’s not much of an issue now that cars have aux inputs.) and 2. The iTunes catalog has a better catalog (which is the only real issue that I care about.)
I like how this dude is doing a subtle Vince Shlomi imitation.
phil, you are a music nerd. i am a music nerd. i listen to dozens of albums per month on my rhapsody subscription. for me, it’s worth it to have a subscription. most people care to find a new album once per 3 months, at the maximum. why would they pay $15 per month for a subscription? for them, it’s worth $3 a month, if that. now if we could get non-music-nerd people to listen to 6 hours of music a day (I think that’s the average number of TV hours per day), then maybe they’d see the value of a subscription.
anyone who listens to music while they work out gets pretty bored with their tracks and need to update their collection fairly often. Obviously if you don’t use your ipod very often and you don’t buy music very often this isn’t for you and you also aren’t the most important customers for retails to target. Also, who watches 6 hours of tv a day? Thats ridiculous
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“fuzzy math”? It seems pretty straight forward if you ask me. I have cable for unlimited TV, why wouldn’t I pay a subscription for unlimited music.
Why do I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here? Subscription is a no-brainer. As far as I can see, there are only two down-sides: 1. I can’t burn it onto a CD (that’s not much of an issue now that cars have aux inputs.) and 2. The iTunes catalog has a better catalog (which is the only real issue that I care about.)
I like how this dude is doing a subtle Vince Shlomi imitation.
phil,
you are a music nerd. i am a music nerd. i listen to dozens of albums per month on my rhapsody subscription. for me, it’s worth it to have a subscription. most people care to find a new album once per 3 months, at the maximum. why would they pay $15 per month for a subscription? for them, it’s worth $3 a month, if that. now if we could get non-music-nerd people to listen to 6 hours of music a day (I think that’s the average number of TV hours per day), then maybe they’d see the value of a subscription.
anyone who listens to music while they work out gets pretty bored with their tracks and need to update their collection fairly often. Obviously if you don’t use your ipod very often and you don’t buy music very often this isn’t for you and you also aren’t the most important customers for retails to target. Also, who watches 6 hours of tv a day? Thats ridiculous