Posted on 11/16/2015 6:05:29 AM PST by dayglored
Microsoft has officially buried its Zune music service, though it was already a distant memory for a lot of music fans.
The Zune music service was discontinued on Sunday and users are now no longer able to stream or download content. Instead, Microsoft encourages users to try out their 3-year-old Groove Music, a digital music streaming service which boasts a music catalog of over 38 million tracks.
Zune device owners are not affected and can continue to listen to and transfer music without a problem.
Microsoft launched its Zune portable player and music service in 2006 as a response to Apple's successful iPod and iTunes that had already cycled through a few generations. It was lauded as the "iPod Killer" by media before release but never lived up to the potential.
The Zune hardware player was discontinued in 2011. The end of Zune is the latest mark of the lessening popularity for downloading content for MP3 players, as more people turn to streaming music instead.
Just as long as they leave my WinTV alone....hey!
Me-Too-ism as strategy.
It was so old it did not spy on you.
Is there a product which Microsoft is actually _succeeding_ with? market domination with a real positive growth trajectory?
...as contrasted with not failing as fast as, say, Zune?
Sheldon: I assure you, you’ll be sorry you wasted your money on an iPod when Microsoft comes out with theirs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3elnTOhOjU8
Uh, yeah.
Read fewer tech blogs and you will see many of them.
It was a perfectly fine music player. Goodness knows what people actually found so distasteful about it.
It is difficult to trust Microsoft regarding services and software. Over they years, they have cancelled or stopped various ones, many times without much notice.
But, the same can be applied to many softwares and services that came on the market and disappeared.
...like...?
I still have a white mint Zune. Sold daughter’s pink one a few years ago for 200.00. Maybe it’s time to get rid of my white one!
Seriously? Like?
Here, instead of me having to waste my time listing all of their product lines that have been profitable for them, experienced growth and have been well-received, just hold onto the group-think internet mindset that everything they make is hated, complete failures, make no money, and no uses.
Jesus, I swear tech discussion on FR is the biggest waste of time sometimes.
BAM.
Huh? MSFT had a music service? I didn’t know that!
I’ve been following Microsoft since before they went public.
Seems they’ve passed the inflection/tipping point: still making a lot of money, and absolute figures are growing, but their grip is slipping just about everywhere. MS had to introduce their own “Surface Book” because _nobody_ was producing Windows machines right, instead cutting corners and losing sight of who their actual customers are ... while the competition systematically slices away market share. I’ve seen other big solid companies go from such unshakable dominance to “patent fire sale” in shockingly short time.
There’s a reason I didn’t go work for one big monster after I graduated from college.
Looks a lot like "anus"
It could be because the player that came out of it looked like this:
Strange choice of color. . . and there had to be a connection. Engineers have a sick sense of humor.
And here I'd figured they were going for "Earth Tones" to contrast with the sterile white plastic of the iPod. Granted the iPod Mini had colors but they were mainly toyish pastel colors.
Maybe Microsoft was making a bold statement in answer to UPS: "Here's what brown can do for you".
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