Not So Zune
Well, the Microsoft Zune launched yesterday, and unfortunately I’m not as enthusiastic as I used to be. There was so much potential that I think MS squandered away…at least on version 1.0.
You see, MS abandoned the one main thing that gave it an advantage over Apple, it’s not using its own PlaysForSure DRM scheme. The Zune is using it’s own DRM. So music from the Zune store can only play on the Zune player. Also, none of the PlaysForSure partners tracks will play on the Zune. Microsoft has become Apple. [sigh].
I know WHY they did it, they followed the successful model of the iPod. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. Basically, by having the one store, one player approach, they can make the ease of use the main feature. The two just work together seamlessly. They are betting (like Apple proved) that if you make it easy and sexy enough, you will win normal users. You just won’t win over people like me.
I like choice. I like the ability to choose different vendors to buy from (for both the hardware and the music) and I like to be able to play my legally purchased (or rented) music anywhere I want. Both Apple and MS limit this, and because of it, I have stopped buying music with restrictive DRM. I happily subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited instead.
All of this said, I AM glad that MS got into the market. Hopefully it will force some more innovation on Apple’s part and cause some price wars. We can only win in the end. Until then I’ll stick with my Creative Zen Vision!
November 15, 2006 @ 12:26 pm
One of the biggest reasons for Microsoft to switch from PlaysForSure was that their DRM scheme was hacked. Some enterprising person developed a way to strip the DRM keys completely out and then made it easy to use and widely available. Obviously the cat being out of the bag caused MS (or helped then decide) to move to yet another DRM scheme.
Wonder how long until that one gets hacked as well.
November 16, 2006 @ 10:51 am
Oh, I’m familiar with FairUse4WM, but it wasn’t publicly available until after MS announced that Zune would have it’s own DRM. MS went this route for the same lock-in and ease-of-use reasons that Apple did. Now they only have to make sure it works in one piece of software and one piece of hardware.
As for hacking the DRM, it gets hacked and then updated and then hacked again. iTunes was hacked early on, then blocked and re-hacked several times and Apple didn’t change things…they just keep updating it to prevent future hacks. I have no doubt that the Zune DRM will get hacked too.
Just still seems dumb to me. They could leverage so much more if they would just consolidate with PlaysForSure…