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Engadget has evidence of a September 15th release from leaked bestbuy displays. And you can preorder it for $25.
 
Let's move on and have this scenario:

What if you don't use up your 10 song store credit each month? Unless we download more than 25 songs each month (10 songs for keeps and a few more to make it worth paying $15) it's not worth it right?

If you don't use your 10 free songs you lose them.

If you asking if the $15 is worth it for the service alone I'd say it depends how much music you listen to. If you use your Zune/iPod or whatever player a lot and if you'd be pulling down more then 100 new DRM songs a month down on a Zune (or more then 1200 a year) then your probably getting your monies worth regardless of if you use your 10 free songs or not as the ownership cost for that kind of music access is starting to get prohibitive for most people.

In my case I don't listen to enough music so no it wouldn't be worth it for me. I have a buddy whos a music nut, this would be his dream service.
 
If you don't use your 10 free songs you lose them.

If you asking if the $15 is worth it for the service alone I'd say it depends how much music you listen to. If you use your Zune/iPod or whatever player a lot and if you'd be pulling down more then 100 new DRM songs a month down on a Zune (or more then 1200 a year) then your probably getting your monies worth regardless of if you use your 10 free songs or not as the ownership cost for that kind of music access is starting to get prohibitive for most people.

In my case I don't listen to enough music so no it wouldn't be worth it for me. I have a buddy whos a music nut, this would be his dream service.

Also for DJs, this service would be perfect for them.
 
You don't have to subscribe to their $14.99 marketplace if you don't want to. It's a pretty decent way to find new songs though, and you can stop your subscription anytime you want. Sign up for a month, for example. Listen to a few thousand songs. Download and keep your 10 favorite. Buy a few more if you want at their going rate, most in DRM-free 320kbps WMA form. Stop the subscription. You're out $5 and you used it to discover a slew of new music.

The Zune HD's music app appears to be designed to expose you to more music, including addition music by any artist you may be listening to and even from related artists in the same genre. If you're a subscriber, you can listen to anything it recommends right away (assuming you've got a WiFi connection). There is no limit to how many songs you can listen to under that subscription. The only limit is how many you can download to keep.
 
The new Zune software is amazingly cool. I love the designs. And now with the syncing of artist info/bio/artwork/pictures - related artists with Zune HD, I think whole service makes even more sense.

People who left windows world still think zune is using windows media player kind of interface...lol

You owe it yourself to check it out, if you haven't already....

I found some very trippy cool zune wallpapers, now using them on my iphone... MS came a long way since Zune 30 aka. 'tha brick'

Good job really....
 
looks a lot better than the last Zune, but even if i was in the market for a Zune or Touch i'd still pick the Touch. and i'm SQL server admin who has no plans to switch to Mac's.

both are the same price but the Touch has so much more functionality via it's apps

one advantage the Zune has is that the Tegra is supposed to be pretty good and there is no installed base like with the iphone/touch. you can pay devs to make games that look a lot better than those on the Apple platform since everyone is still making games to run on the 1st gen hardware
 
What I don't get when it comes to the whole subscription thing is why anyone would want to go with a paid subscription model when Pandora, Last.fm, and several other streaming services are completely free. My owned library is interesting enough to me that I don't have a problem listening to it from point A to point B, but when I get somewhere that I have an internet connection, first thing I do with my touch is put Pandora on.
 
What I don't get when it comes to the whole subscription thing is why anyone would want to go with a paid subscription model when Pandora, Last.fm, and several other streaming services are completely free.

People want to listen to specific songs. Not similar artists/songs...
I want to listen to new Thrice album (not just songs or similar artists but whole album) a couple hundred times but that's about it... I don't want to buy it...

now do that with pandora or last.fm or slacker...
seeqpod was a on demand streaming service, and we all know what happened to them...
 
"FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT" lol.

You guys are looking pretty silly.

Heres my take. With the zune a person can try a large variety of music without having to pay more than 15 bucks a month. I live in a pretty remote area and finding new music is more of a challenge than say if I lived in a large city with better (and more) radio stations.

So I can see that it could work for some people really well. Would I pay 15 bucks a month if the Ipod store offered it? nope.

Do I think the Zune can compete with the ipod? Hardly, but I see it as a much different machine looking for a different audience.
 
- The Zune HD won't be as expensive as the Touch. Probably 75% the price of a Touch for the same memory.
- The Zune HD will provide a deeper, richer, media experience than the Touch. This is already evident in the various videos you can find around the web.

4D
 
- The Zune HD won't be as expensive as the Touch. Probably 75% the price of a Touch for the same memory.

Highly unlikely. The iPod refresh which will be before or very near the release date for the Zune HD should drop the prices of the Touch inline with the rumored prices for the Zune. ($229 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB).

- The Zune HD will provide a deeper, richer, media experience than the Touch. This is already evident in the various videos you can find around the web.

Can you quantify this and/or provide some links showing these deeper richer media experiences?
 
10 songs per month?

I didnt know it credited 10 songs per month. Thats awesome. The only reason I havent gotten it is because I thought it was only rent unlimited X songs. But this way I get 10 of the songs that I'm most addicted to and I have unlimited songs to download and check out.
 
What I don't get when it comes to the whole subscription thing is why anyone would want to go with a paid subscription model when Pandora, Last.fm, and several other streaming services are completely free. My owned library is interesting enough to me that I don't have a problem listening to it from point A to point B, but when I get somewhere that I have an internet connection, first thing I do with my touch is put Pandora on.

a lot of us city people take the subway to work which is underground. slacker can cache stations on blackberries but no iphones. with the zune model you can keep the music locally on the device while you don't have a signal
 
Can you quantify this and/or provide some links showing these deeper richer media experiences?
Listen or better yet watch CNet's MP3 insider #156 interview with Brian Seitz.

In another post Donald Bell says: "The Zune's coolest music trick, though, is that it automatically pulls in a gallery of band photos, biographical information, and similar artist recommendations for any currently playing song--regardless of whether the track is from Zune Marketplace, your friend's hard drive, or torrents. It's feels a little more like digging through Last.fm now, instead of just a straight-up music directory. If the Zune's connected to Wi-Fi, listings of related artists will link though to the mobile version of Zune Marketplace, where tracks can be streamed and purchased directly. "
 
I don't think you understood.

Its unlimited songs, just 10 you can keep and transfer to other devices. The DRM locks out all the others so they're only good on the Zune they were downloaded onto.

Additionally you can still buy other songs if you want other non-DRM locked songs. Only nice because you can basiclly go through a massive list of music and load your player up every month with anything you want.

but it's only as long as you pay for it. if you stop it, all songs will be useless. subscription for music is still not for me. I like to own it. probably subscription is opt for teenagers or young people who always want to listen to new music. well, I am not.
 
Zune HD is available September 15th and with come in 5 different colors. 16gb will be $219.99 and 32gb $289.99. Available for preorder today.
 
celebration
zunehd-colors-08-13-09.jpg
 
I have to say, I am pretty excited. It looks good and it seems like the way it manages music is a touch more to my liking than the way the iPhone OS handles.

Also, Zune pass is pretty cool. Not to fan the flames, but there is a good deal of value to those who elect to use it. I listen to a ton of music, and I can then go though a ton of music to see what I like. While I don't own it, I can listen to 10,000 songs and not pay $10,000 for it. Its just 15 bucks and I can keep 10 of them. Which isn't too bad of a deal if you ask me.

Let's see what Apple has to offer. If they can't come up with something better than a better GPU and a camera, I'm afraid i'm going to get a Zune HD. The camera does me no good, i'd rather use my sub-compact Canon to get better pics. Mic does me no good since I don't really care about it. And for games, I would rather play my DS or PSP if I want portable. So basically, give me a freaking fantastic sounding and awesome UI to play my music easily.
 
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/zune-hd-specs-fill-in-the-blanks-on-video-format-support-batter/

The specs are out-33hrs audio, 8.5hrs video, so basically same as iPod Touch (but with a much smaller battery-only 2hrs to charge over AC). Now they just need a 64gb model..

I guess Im just not music loving enough to ever see a point of bigger than 8G PMP. especially if I were to use it for internet.

I have a 4G Flash Zune, and its not full. FM radio and podcasts are all I do, maybe 1 G music on there.

I dont think small screen PMPs are ideal for video, for me, so there is limited video I put on there.

If capacity is important, I would like these PMP/smartphone makers to offer SDHC options, rather than all lock up like what apple, palm, MS now are doing.
 
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