Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace will sell individual songs for Windows PCs and Zune digital media players “through a system called Microsoft Points. The new Microsoft cash system will work by adding money to an account, as with a prepaid phone card. Points will then be deducted from the account with each purchase. A single song will cost 79 points, ‘the equivalent of 99 cents,’ according to Microsoft spokeswoman Kyrsa Dixon,” Candace Lombardi reported in late September for CNET News.
Lombardi reported, “The point system is already used in the Xbox Live Marketplace, and Microsoft plans to host other online stores where Microsoft points can be redeemed, according to Katy Gentes, product marketing manager for Zune. In the United States, points are available in denominations of $5 for 400 points, $15 for 1,200, $25 for 2,000 and $50 for 4,000. That makes $1 worth about 80 points.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Several MacDailyNews readers have suggested that we do the math, so here’s the deal:
• 79 Microsoft Points equals 99-cents or one song.
• The smallest amount of Microsoft Points available for purchase is $5.00 or 400 points.
• Each Microsoft Point is worth 1.25-cents.
• So, you give Microsoft your $5 and buy your 5 songs. That’s 395 total points. Microsoft has your 5 points or 6.25-cents “left over.”
• Say you want an album’s worth, or 10 songs? You give Microsoft $10 for 800 points and buy 10 songs for 790 points. Microsoft has your 10 points or 12.5-cents “left over.”
• See where we’re headed? Microsoft is taking money from their pigeons, er… “customers” and placing it in an interest-bearing account to earn themselves more money on their generous customers’ interest-free “loans.”
• Now, if you don’t wish to give Microsoft your money to use for free to generate interest income for Microsoft, you need to figure out exactly how many 79-point songs to buy, so that no points are left over. The magic formula to avoid giving Microsoft a free loan is 79 points x 400 (smallest denomination available for purchase) = 31,600 points or 400 songs at 79 points each. Total cost: US$395. Not very practical, is it?So, the real point is clear: Microsoft’s “points” are designed to confuse consumers and generate interest income from “left over” amounts. Now you know exactly why “1 Microsoft Point” doesn’t equal “1 U.S. Cent.” Boy, if Microsoft can dupe enough people into this Microsoft Points scheme, those “left overs” will really add up.
To buy even a single 99-cent song from the Zune store, you have to purchase blocks of “points” from Microsoft, in increments of at least $5. You can’t just click and have the 99 cents deducted from a credit card, as you can with iTunes. You must first add points to your account, then buy songs with these points. So, even if you are buying only one song, you have to allow Microsoft, one of the world’s richest companies, to hold on to at least $4.01 of your money until you buy another. And the point system is deceptive. Songs are priced at 79 points, which some people might think means 79 cents. But 79 points actually cost 99 cents. – Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, November 09, 2006
In stark contrast to Microsoft, Apple charges real currency. You buy a song from the U.S. iTunes Store for 99-cents, you pay 99-cents. You can buy one just one song, if you like, and you’ll be charged 99-cents. No left overs. No formulas. No “points” scheme. Just a single, simple, straight-up, honest transaction.
Microsoft = MS = M$ = Mind Sodomy = Mind Fcuk
This is the magic formula Microsloth has been using for decades. It works. Poor lemmings!
My long dark days of miserable isolation are over! I can now join this community that has its own ecosystem of points and WiFi sharing. People just like me will be coming together, socializing where it wasn’t possible before. The world was such a harsh place for those of us who never felt comfortable with standard currency. Are you credited in dollars and cents for your triumphs in Galaxian? No. Recongition is best expressed in POINTS.
Zune is a beacon of hope for us living under bedroom blacklights, Blue Oyster Cult posters and 12-minute Yes songs. This period of detachment is over.
The age of points have begun! Down with money! I am no longer an island!
Thank you Microsoft.
Microsoft used the points system to try to make back some of the money lost on the sale of every Xbox 360.
It’s just natural that they would use the points system to try to make back some of the money they are going to lose on the Zune.
I can’t understand why you guys can’t get your heads around this. Xbox 360 and the Zune player are loss leaders. Everything else costs big time.
Get over it.
I, Joe Sarcasm, approved this statement.
It may be that Microsoft will sell other innovative official Zune products using points.
Zune pocket protector = 2 points
Zune mouse pad = 8 points
Zune bumper sticker = 5 points
Zune t-shirt, short sleeve = 12 points
Zune t-shrt, long sleeve = 17 points
Zune ball cap = 13 points
Zune commerative plates = 40 points
Zune roach clips = free (you gotta be stoned to buy a Zune)
As Zune’s sister, I can vouch for the fact he never leaves his room unless a new Xbox game comes out or he needs to get some anti bacterial stuff from his geeky retard friend for his pp or tp or whatever they call that box of wires that controls him.
It would be , like, so awesome if he would have a real social life? My friends won’t even come over or like stay the night because he reeks of geek and always has a stiffy and it scares them and, oh my God, my girlfriends won’t come over either unless their laptop is spassing and he likes puts a spell on it and then they leave cause his woody woodpecker wants to eeewwwww GET OUT OF MY ROOM ZUNE!!! and quit getting the batteries out of my vibrator, you’ve got your own, freak!
TT
MW:analysis, as in mine.
Use CoinStar for small iTunes Store purchases using cash.
If you buy a standard iTunes Store card you will have left-over money. You can then go to a CoinStar kiosk (coinstar.com) with your pocket change and get an iTS Card for the exact amount you need to round out your account balance. If you get an iTS Card from CoinStar, it will not deduct it’s usual 8.9% fee, and you get your exact amount. This is an excellent way for a teen to turn his pocket cash into a few songs.
GOOD GOD MY MATH IS HORRIBLE. I AM BUT AN ARTEEEST.
1+1=5
iTunes does somewhat the same thing via the gift cards. A $100 card will get you 101 songs and a penny left over. You have to that 99 times to come out even, thats $9900. There may be a lower solution with the smaller cards.
– gws
No, Peeerson
2+2=5
I am your friend
trust me
TT
U.S. students suck at math. That’s why M$ is launching the Zune and Zune Marketplace over there. The capitalists shall destroy themselves courtesy of our friends at M$.
gws,
Yes that’s true, but your next purchase will be the difference, not another $5 or $20.
what about taxes?
On the other hand, since you don’t want a s**t brown thing in your house anyway, just forget the math, have a glass of wine, switch on the iPod, and relaaaxxx…
Spread the word-
1) Go to [insert big name retailer here].
2) Buy a Zune
3) Open the box (ensuring it can’t be resold as new).
4) Then return it for a refund.
5) Repeat [at different retailer]
If enough people do this, it will become very unprofitable for retailers to sell Zunes and will have a negative impact on Micro$uck.
Gates and Balmer are scum bags.
Boy, if Microsoft can dupe enough people into this Microsoft Points scheme, those “left overs” will really add up.
Look what they did with Windoz
If enough people do this, it will become very unprofitable for retailers to sell Zunes and will have a negative impact on Micro$uck.
It also becomes very unprofitable for consumers.
Why?
1. Big box retailers tend to hit you with open-box return fees, or limit open-box returns to exchange only.
2. If you do manage a return, the stores like to stick you with an in-store credit (versus actually giving your money back).
All the more reasons to fuck Zune altogether. Big box stores are all about shelf space and product turnover; the best that’d happen is the Zunes just SIT, and the stores make MS take them back.
How sweet it’d be if MS lost favor with the big retailers…
“1.A large majority of people in the world don’t own credit cards or debit cards.This eliminates that barrier.
So how does one contribute money to their Marketplace account if they don’t have credit cards?
Do they go to participating stores like Best Buy or Circuit City and buy a Point Card for cash? If so, are they not paying tax on that card purchase, which adds to the cost of per-song purchases?
Won’t Microsoft also charge taxes on purchases from Marketplace in the manner Apple iTS does?
So is it, 79 points plus tax?
So I think i worked out a reasonable solution that will help you to purchase these microsft songs without leaving any money behind for them. we must consider that each song is 79 pts. You can then label your point increments as follows…
$5 = 400pts = a
$15 = 1200pts = b
$25 = 2000pts = c
$50 = 4000pts = d
then, if we assume that a,b,c,d and n are whole numbers we can write out the following equation to show how to even our points out….
79n = 400a + 1200b + 2000c + 4000d
Now lets attempt to solve this in order help us choose our points
79n = 400(a + 3b + 5c + 10d)
79/400 = (a + 3b + 5c + 10d)/n
Therefore we must satisfy the following relationships
a + 3b + 5c + 10d = 79 and
n = 400
Thus, if we pick a,b,c, and d to satisfy their equation, and n to 400, we will have succeeded. One solution to this is as follows
d = 70
c = 1
b = 1
a = 1
Thus, by this solution if you spend $395 in order to purchase 31,600 microsoft points then you will be able to purchase 400 songs (n is the number of songs in the equation). This can be scaled up if you would like to purchase more songs, such as 800 or 1200 songs, however, it cannot be scaled down, if you dont want to pay any extra money you must buy in increments of 400 songs. Hope this helps you out in your music buying adventures!
This MS Points system is more idiotic than a bad cell phone plan.
If it’s really about perception (79 points versus 99 cents), then everyone should all-out boycott Zune for MS daring to think we’re that stupid.
Apple’s system is so much better, 99 cents and you’re done. No calculating, no points, no BS. It’s like MS tried to make Points as miserable and as complex as possible.
But then again when you compare product design philosophies between MS & Apple, Zune and Points are just more of the same.
“1) Go to [insert big name retailer here].
2) Buy a Zune
3) Open the box (ensuring it can’t be resold as new).
4) Then return it for a refund.
5) Repeat [at different retailer] “
JUST FOR GIGGLES, I’M GONNA GO DO THIS W/ IPODS BECAUSE STEVE JOBS SUCKS.
YOU MAC-HEADS SERIOUSLY NEED TO GET A LIFE!
I SEE MORE POSTS FROM APPLE TWITS AFRAID MICROSOFT ARE GOING TO TAKE AWAY ANOTHER MARKET FROM THEM. (BEING THE ONLY ONE THEY’VE SUCCEEDED IN IN THE LAST 20 YEARS, THAT’S UNDERSTANDABLE.)
GROW UP MAC-TWITS. YOU’RE GONNA GET STEEVED AGAIN, BUT BY BILL.
FED UP WITH MSBS,
Of course he is. And guess what kind of computer the labs helped by his philanthropic org can buy?
And people wonder why we love our Macs and Apple? Simplicity is the name of the game here folks. Microsoft doesn’t know the meaning of the word apparently. It’s just another reason why the Zune will fail.
Wow, the though that you might leave a cent or two sitting in your Microsoft bank account has got some of you really riled.
If you were into saving money you wouldn’t be buying Macs in the first place.
Songs are also a quarter of a cent cheaper with points, so buy 4 songs from MS, you already save a whole cent over iTunes anyways. Buy a hundred songs, you’ve saved a quarter. So compared to iTunes that’s found money, who cares if that pathetically tiny overage amount is sitting in MS’s points system?
You should do the math to see how many songs you need to buy from the iTunes store for it to be cheaper than the Zune store. I’ll give you a hint. The answer is IT NEVER IS.
Pros of the point system for Microsoft:
Lower transaction costs for Microsoft.
Allows the easy discounting (or conversely raising the price) of songs in the future (Act today, get 100 bonus points, buy points bundles for less than $0.79 each, buy a particular song or album, get a few bonus points.
Allows bundling of arbitrary numbers of “free” points in with a Zune (whereas a cash rebate would cost more). Helps Microsoft out with antitrust regulators, especially if they sell a Zune with $249 retail value of points. Microsoft can argue forever about what a point actually costs them or is worth.
Allows Microsoft to create points based loyalty programs.
Points can be sold for different amounts in different countries, while the store deals in one currency, points.
Points could make WiFi tranasctions for songs easier. You have pre-paid points, wanna turn that 3 day/3 play song into something you own forever? Done.
You can have an auto top up feature hooked to a credit card. When my points run out, just charge me for another 500/1000/2500 etc.
You separate the payment from song purchases. You already have the extra points sitting there, what do you want to spend them on?
Anyway, anybody who really cares about cost is going to pirate songs by going with the $14.95 subscription, downloading all the songs they want, removing the DRM, and cancelling the subscription.
Microsoft is now printing its own Monopoly money! (pun intended)
Cheers,
Tim.