The Microsoft Zune portable digital music player has been receiving some extremely mixed reviews. Leo Laporte from TWiT claims to love the form factor and the hardware, but even Leo joins in the nearly universal criticism of the Zune’s digital rights management scheme and music store ecosystem. The most common complaints about the Zune I’ve seen are:
- Microsoft’s change in digital rights management (DRM) for the Zune so that music purchased under Microsoft’s earlier PlaysForSure DRM scheme will not play on the Zune. This includes Naptster, Rhapsody and– most annoyingly– MSN Music. If you bought a lot of music from the MSN Music store you are going to have to buy your music all over again to play it on the Zune.
- The Zune can only synchronize using Zune software and not with Windows Media Player.
- There will be no driver for the Zune when Microsoft’s new Vista operating system ships.
- The Zune’s sharing feature allows Zune users to send songs to one another via Wi-Fi. They have a limited number of days or listens before the song expires. Even song files not purchased from the Zune store will have Zune DRM applied to them when users share them. For Creative Commons and other content the application of DRM schemes is actually a violation of the license, and in general this means users have a limited ability to share even their own homemade content with friends.
- The Zune store does not use dollars but rather uses points, such that 1 point does not equal 1 cent. The minimum amount a user can add to their Zune store balance is $5 worth of points, so users are constantly being required to top up their accounts or leave excess points in their account. Anybody who has been to Taste of Chicago will be familiar with this concept.
- Microsoft are paying Universal Music Group some small fee (I think $3) for every Zune sold as a sort of “piracy tax.”
(I am reminded of the “Bad Idea Jeans” commercial from Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s.)
Some reviewers of the Zune have been particularly brutal. Of note is this review from the Chicago Sun-Times which was brought to my attention by Slashdot Review:
“Avoid,” is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that’s so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.
Dude, harsh.
It is very hard to believe that the smart people at Microsoft could have produced such a flawed product with such a poor excuse for a commercial ecosystem. After all, this is the same team that developed the Xbox 360, and that thing is great.
I actually have started to wonder if there isn’t some degree of game theory going on at Microsoft. I wonder if they aren’t falling on their swords to put Apple, the iPod and the iTunes commercial ecosystem at a disadvantage in customer perception and with the music industry.
Owners of the iPod tend not to think about the consequences of DRM, for good or for bad. Apple have done a pretty good job of keeping the downside to copy-protected music and video hidden from the user by integrating the portable device, the computer software and the buying experience together so well. The fact that PlaysForSure does not function on the Zune is likely to raise the realization that DRM exists and is very limiting when you want to move from one platform or device to another. Users are likely to ask “Will my iTunes play on my Zune/Nokia/whatever if I switch?” Since the answer is a resounding “No” users are going to be much less willing to buy music from iTunes even if they own an iPod. All of a sudden Apple’s grip on the iPod nation is loosened just a little bit because users realize for the first time that they’re actually locked into something. The nonsense with strict DRM applied to shared songs only makes this more apparent to anyone who knows anyone who is unfortunate enough to own a Zune. Inoperability with Windows Media Player and the lack of availability of a driver for Vista have a similar chilling effect– “What happens to my music if Apple discontinues iTunes for my platform or I move to a platform that does not have a version of iTunes (such as Linux)?” You’re out of luck, that’s what happens. Techies have known all of this stuff for a long time, and now the average user is going to get a lesson in the perils of DRM.
The funky point system is there so that the Zune store can offer variable pricing for songs, or so says Microsoft. So, a song from the back catalog might cost you 77 points, the current chart-toppers will cost you 115 points, or somesuch. Apple has long resisted this sort of pricing scheme, holding firm to the $0.99/song price. The recording companies have long-lobbied Apple for some sort of variable pricing mechanism. With variable pricing being offered by Microsoft, the record companies will be emboldened in their negotiations with Apple.
The fee paid to Universal Music Group is particularly interesting. This has the potential to give the recording companies the idea that they should get a similar kickback from the manufacturers of all digital music players. Since Apple is the big dog they are a juicy target.
Having not played with the Zune myself I cannot comment on direct experience with the device or ecosystem that surrounds it. The reviews don’t exactly make it sound very appealing, but the more I think about it the more I wonder if all of these supposed mis-steps are not the real point of the Zune.
Technorati Tags: Zune, Competitive Intelligence.
