zune pass

Microsoft Stores offering 12 months free Zune Pass with every new Windows Phone

February 3, 2012 | By Surur

freezune

If you are in USA and looking to buy a Windows Phone, it may be worth your while to make a detour to a Microsoft store (16 locations, country-wide) as they are offering 12 months worth of free Zune Pass $120 worth) for free with a purchase of a new Windows Phone 7 handset.

The deal expires on the 14th February, just in time to give the love of your life a new Windows Phone all loaded up with music already.

Via WPCentral.com

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Zune Pass now available in Australia

November 15, 2011 | By Surur

zune7 Right on schedule the Zune Music Pass has become available in Australia, offering a library of 11 million music tracks free to stream.

Unfortunately the offer does not include the old 10 tracks to keep, but at $11.99 a month or $119.90 per year it is still a pretty good deal.

While the service is now available, it still does not include features such as local album art or Zune Podcast support, but we know Microsoft is working on equalizing service levels all round the world, so I am sure it will not be long in coming.

Via Winrumors.com

Thanks Brendon for the tip.

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Many Zune Pass users stuck in an endless ToS loop

November 9, 2011 | By Surur

It seems Microsoft’s Zune Pass service is having issues, with a rash of users complaining when they try and sign in to the service they get asked to accept Terms of Service, but that accepting the Terms just results in the same ToS popping up again.

Microsoft has a knowledge base article up on the issue, but it dates from September and it is not known if the solutions offered there will be helpful.

Interestingly they note that problems with the clock on the PC may be one of the issues, and one wonders if this is in any way related to daylight savings time, with the clocks recently falling back one hour in the USA.

Are any of our readers affected by this issue, and is there any sure-fire solution? Let us know your experience below.

via WPSauce.com

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Zune Music Pass Coming To Australia At $11.99 Per Month

October 26, 2011 | By Pradeep

At a press event in Australia, Microsoft Australia announced that its Zune Music Pass service is coming to Australia on Nov-16th. With Zune Music pass, subscribers can stream music from the library of about 11 million songs on Zune desktop software, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone devices. The Zune Music pass service will cost $11.99 per month and however there will be no free songs available for download every month as we had in US earlier. Also, still there is no option for users to buy individual songs/albums from the service. Anyway, good to see Zune services expanding outside US.

Source: istartedsomething

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Ibiza Rocks giving away 3-month Zune passes to UK WP7 users

September 17, 2011 | By Surur

IbizaRocks is running a contest to give away 3-month long free Zune passes to Facebook and Windows Phone 7 users who tag themselves and a friend on their Facebook page.

They write:

To mark the end of the an incredible season at Ibiza Rocks, our friends over at Zune have kindly given us some 3-month Zune Passes to give away!
Your 3 month Zune Pass will allow you to stream an unlimited amount of music through any or all of the following channels – Your PC via the Zune software, on the web via Zune.net or MSN, on your XBOX 360 or on your Windows Phone 7.
This means you can listen to the Ibiza Rocks 2011 playlist or any other of the 10 million tracks available to you on the go, at home or in the comfort of your own living room.
For the ultimate experience we recommend you install the Zune PC software or use Zune via Kinect for XBOX 360, it’ll blow your mind!

Want to stand a chance of winning? Tag your name and a friend’s in our Facebook Status Update.

If you don’t win a 3 month Zune Pass, you can still get 14 days of unlimited streaming with their14-day free Zune Pass trial which is open to everyone!

The contest is for UK residents only. If you want to give it a try Visit Ibiza Rocks’s comment here.

Via MML

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Get 3 Months Of Free Zune Pass With New Windows Phone From AT&T

May 3, 2011 | By Pradeep

AT&T announced a new offer for its Windows Phone devices. Buy any AT&T Windows Phone 7 and get 3 months of free unlimited music with Zune Pass. You can either buy Windows Phone device from AT&T for $49.99 under 2 year contract or buy it from Amazon Wireless for $0.01 under simialr terms. Your three-month Zune Pass ($44.97 value) gives you unlimited access to over 11 million songs to stream or download and access to music on your Windows Phone 7, Xbox console or PC; and 10 free songs per month to download and keep forever (30
Songs total).

http://www.freezunemusicnow.com/ is the place where you can get your free Zune pass.

Thanks to Pandi for the tip.

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Album Galleries-New Way To Discover Music On Zune

January 31, 2011 | By Pradeep

Music discovery is always a tough job when you have subscriptions like Zune Pass which allows you to listen to millions of songs. Zune has some features like smartDJ, MixView which helps a bit to solve the problem. Today Zune has launched a new way to browse Music, its called Album Galleries. Album Galleries allows you to browse music based on the genre like hip hop, jazz, rock, metal, etc,. Selecting any of those will take you to the page with top artists on that category. Again on selecting any of the artists, it lists the songs and albums which you can either buy or listen to if you have Zune pass. Try it out here.

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Exclusive Interviews for Zune Pass Subscribers

December 11, 2010 | By Gretchen

The Zune Music Marketplace is offering free downloads of artist interviews available only to Zune Pass subscribers. With artists ranging from Phoenix to Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, the interview series covers a wide range of music styles, and has artists telling the story behind their music. Each interview is under two minutes, and takes place over the phone (hence the name). If you’re a long time fan of one of the featured artists, or just want to learn more about the music business, check out the Zune Phoner. You can find a link to the series on the main Marketplace page.

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Zune Pass Annual Subscription Now Cheaper

December 7, 2010 | By Gretchen

Microsoft has been sending out emails announcing a new price for the annual Zune Pass- 12 months for the cost of 10. That works out to $149.90:

Just like buying in bulk at the grocery store, you get a better value overall, but you have to pay for it all at once.

Be sure to read the fine print as well: if you want to use the Zune streaming on an Xbox, you need to have an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription.

Will this new deal sway any of you to an Annual Subscription for Zune Pass?

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Taking Full Advantage of Your Zune Pass

November 23, 2010 | By Gretchen

As Daniel at WMExperts says in the video above, he isn’t a conspiracy theorist, but it looks to him like Microsoft was trying to hide the unlimited download feature on the Zune for WP7. I don’t know if the folks at Microsoft were trying to hide it or not, but this video seems to confirm that when it comes to WP7, when in doubt, hold your finger down on something, and a menu will pop up.

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Zune Pass Primer Part 2

November 19, 2010 | By Gretchen

After reading the comments section, I thought we could all do with a second post about the Zune Pass. First off, I think I was a bit wishy-washy in my definitions of streaming and downloading using the Zune Pass, so hopefully this clears it up:

10 downloads a month- You can download 10 songs a month, and they’re yours to keep forever. These are MP3 files, and you can burn them to a CD, and put on unlimited devices. They are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free.

Unlimited downloads- These have DRM, meaning, the license only allows the music to go on three devices and three computers. You must sync your device to the Marketplace at least once every 30 days to keep this license going. You cannot burn this music to a CD or a computer. This music will stay on your devices and computers as part of your collection or play lists. In terms of your every day use on your Zune player, you can’t tell that these songs are any different than the 10 “keepers”. This music will disappear once you stop paying for a Zune Pass (annoyingly, the song titles will still be there, but you can’t play them).

Zune.net streaming- You go to zune.net and log in with your Live ID and can stream music over the internet via ANY computer (ie: your work computer, your cousin’s computer, etc.). This doesn’t count towards the “three and three” rule.

All of these features are only available in select countries around the world where the Zune service is offered: http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/learningcenter/zunemarketplace/about/marketplacecountries.htm

Another question that popped up in the comments was about the process of linking multiple devices (for the sake of this article, WP7s) with the Zune Pass. When setting up your (or a family member’s) phone, you need to sign in using a Live ID that is associated with your Zune Pass. If you’ve already set up your phone, go to Settings> Email & Accounts> Windows Live to change it. Microsoft also has a document that goes into detail about Windows Live ID http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/start/which-windows-live-id-should-i-use.aspx.

Image via: zune.net

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A Zune Pass Primer

November 18, 2010 | By Gretchen

A Zune Pass is a monthly subscription that allows you 10 downloaded songs a month to keep forever, and an unlimited number of songs to stream. You can play your music on your Zune device, WP7, Xbox 360, and your PC. It’s $14.99 a month- so you can think of it as paying $10 for 10 songs you can keep forever + $5 for an unlimited number of songs you’re borrowing. As long as you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, then all of the music you’ve put on your device stays on your device. If you don’t use all of your 10 song credits in a month, you lose them (AKA: they don’t roll over).

I’ve had a Zune Pass the entire time I’ve had my Zune HD, and I’ve never considered canceling it. The Zune Pass is usually one of the features that gets iPod users thinking about jumping ship.

I put music into two categories: “Classics” and “Trendy”. There are some songs I know that I’ll love forever, and other songs are just a flash in the pan. I use my 10 monthly credits to buy the songs that are keepers, and the unlimited downloads get used by songs I’ll be sick of hearing after a few months.

I’ve also used the Zune Pass when I know I like a few songs on an album- the credits go towards the few songs that I like, and the rest of the album is filled in by the unlimited downloads.

One thing you need to be careful with is how many devices and computers you use your Zune Pass with. The official Zune Pass rules are here: http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/learningcenter/zunepass/features/threecomputers.htm; as it says on the official page, “Three computers, three devices”. You can change one computer, and one Zune device every 30 days, too. You can also stream music from zune.net via your web browser when you sign in.

The language on this is kind of vague- it doesn’t explicitly say that the three & three need to belong to just one person (the assumption being that three computers and three devices would belong to multiple people), but the official terms of service (http://www.zune.net/en-US/legal/termsofservice.htm) kind of imply that the Zune Pass is for an individual. I’m not a lawyer, but I haven’t heard of a family getting busted for sharing a Zune Pass.

Overall, I’m a fan of the Zune Pass because it allows me to just enjoy music. I never need to worry if a song is “worth” getting; I just use my unlimited downloads. I think I’ve actually expanded my musical taste because of it.

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Pre-Order a WP7 Device,Get 3 Months Zune Pass Subscription for Free

October 12, 2010 | By Pradeep

Microsoft has come up with introductory offer for WP7 devices at its online store. They have announced a free 3 month Zune pass subscription which allows you to get access to unlimited music for people who pre-order a WP7 device.

Visit Microsoft Store to take advantage of this offer.

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