“Microsoft has pulled the plug on its failed music service, Zune,” BBC News reports.
“The company’s Zune players and digital music service were launched in 2006 to rival Apple’s iPod and iTunes. But they never made a considerable impact and Zune hardware was discontinued in 2011,” The Beeb reports. “On Sunday, the Zune music download and streaming service was quietly retired.”
The Beeb reports, “Microsoft said the last remaining Zune subscribers would be switched over to its Groove music platform.”
MacDailyNews Take: All zero of them.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The thing was still running? 😯
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “CaptainWhizz,” “buddabob,” and “TomPMRI” for the heads up.]
Geez, I thought it was long gone!
Yeah in other news Zune service was recently running… :O
History will repeat, after Microsoft drags it out, with Windows Phone (and related services).
Does that mean my poop brown Zune is now obsolete?
No it still functions as crap.
Beleaguered Microsoft just doesn’t ever seem capable of saying ‘no’ to seriously bad ideas. No wonder they’re the laughingstock of the tech world and Wall Street right now
Zune essentially became Groove. Not really a pulling of the plug per say. That’s like criticizing Apple for pulling the plug on their “beleaguered” Beats Music service as they transition it to Apple Music. Bash Microsoft when they deserve it.
What AnR said. All they did here was to keep offering service to those left on their orphaned platform until they had Groove in place (which is pretty compliant with the rest of the pack of music services and will likely stick around even if only at break-even or maybe a little less, just to ensure MS loyalists can patronize it).
Meanwhile, yeah, they’re currently actually “beleagured” in enough areas to reserve the description to those.
Frankly, the “beleaguered” bit is getting more than a little old. Yes, I get it – in the 90’s every media story about Apple referred to them as “beleaguered”. That was 15+ years ago. How long are we going to hold this grudge?
——RM
A bit longer …
Well it’s pretty significantly different for anyone who purchased DRM music on Zune or was subscribing thinking the 10 free songs a month made it worth it only to find those songs don’t transfer to Groove.
Also, in the case of Apple Music, Apple acquired Beats specifically to turn it into Apple Music. They didn’t have several relaunches of music strategies that failed, try Beats, and then launch Apple Music.
Microsoft, after several failures and screwing over partners (Played For Sure) convinced dozens of people to invest in the Zune Marketplace only to abandon it in transitioning to Groove. Sure, for someone just subscribing and never purchasing songs, that’s not such a big deal and pretty much the same as transitioning from Beats to Apple Music, but for the people who got screwed out of DRM purchases on Zune, they got screwed over simply because Microsoft couldn’t follow through on a commitment and figured, well, let’s just try it again.
Really, Microsoft deserves flack for this. It’s typical of one of the reasons why I wouldn’t trust them in the consumer space.
So all thats happened is Zune is now called Groove? That wouldn’t be a discontinuation of a service, would it?
Now we need a new term for “being Zuned” when your “buddies/partners” screw you over.
“Being Surfaced) just doesn’t sound the same.
Yes, I prefer the term ‘de-turd’….(as evidenced below) in more ways than one.
Someone must of just discovered the Zune Music Server under all the boxes of leftover Zunes, when they were packing them up for the landfill.
See now you are messing with us. We thought it was dead and gone, years ago. Why do we even need to know this. Let it slip in to the night, quiet and invisible.
The old theatre saying also applies here.
If you have more people working on a project than you have using it, it’s time to cancel the show.
Et tu Zune.
It’s about time.
By the way, does MDA get paid something everytime they use the word “beleaguered’? Just asking.
MDN is obsessed, as are many of its die-hard Apple fans, with PAYBACK! Mainly, take that “beleaguered” label and rub it in the faces of those who applied it in their headlines—over and over, and yet again, for so many years—to Apple: the journalists who devolved into rodent-like creatures grubbing for clicks, and the contemptuous pundits gleefully but prematurely sounding the death knell.
But instead of dying Apple SLEW Goliath, the gorgon, the minotaur, the armies of Xerxes. Thus, Apple ceased to become beleaguered.
Instead they now are DOOMED. This represents an increase in importance, in social status…anyone can face beleaguerment and downfall, but only the truly great ever face Doom.
The more numerous the snipers, the more important the target.
At least 6 people will be upset about this service shutting down. 😛
So many??? 🖖😀⌚️
Zune had three subscribers …. Ballmer and the two gift subscriptions he handed out!
I miss Zune Tang.
Best troll ever.
I miss Ballmer’s Left Nut and his manic hatred of iOS 7. Though he was right about big iPhones.
He found his right nut and ran off to Lala Land with Sune Tang! 😜
Yes, he scored big time with Zune Tang’s foxy sister, Sune Tang!
As for iOS 7 hate, there’s still an army of haters out there, like Japanese soldiers still fighting WWII, hiding out on Pacific Islands
Don’t be de-turd just cause your Zune zucks….
Get the A-K, jr!…….er, iPod Touch!!!
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mp3-player-reviews/astell-kern-ak-jr-review/
So MS is and has always been crap, but MDN should be cautious with the word “beleaguered”, otherwise it will result in an inflation of the word.
MS still makes tons of profit and MSFT has gone up over 30% the last 3 months (market cap 430 billion USD), it’s hardly in a “beleaguered” state.
‘Beleaguered’? Microsoft has a lot of problems, but with 90% of the desktop install base, their enterprise business and gaming they are hardly ‘Beleaguered.’
Paging ZuneTang.
Paging ZuneTang.