Microsoft finally shuts down Zune for good

Microsoft finally shuts down Zune for good

If Microsoft hadn’t announced it is unlikely anybody would have noticed: the company is going to shut down its Zune download and subscription service on November 15th. 

Readers may wonder why Microsoft would have kept Zune on life support for all this time, given that Xbox Music - now called Groove Music - served as a much-improved substitute. 

The last Zune was released in 2011 and the only reason why Microsoft would have kept the service alive all this time is to ensure that users could continue to access the DRM’d content contained on their device. 

Now, the company states that those users will have to migrate to Groove Music, paying the required $9.99 per month or $100 per year to access Microsoft’s more ‘modern’ music subscription service. 

It is unlikely that there would be more than a handful of people out there still clinging to their Zune devices, considering that most users have abandoned stand-alone devices in favour of smartphone-based music consumption. 

However, the end of Zune feels like the end of an interesting era in digital music and technology in general, one where Microsoft didn’t stand a chance against Apple. Now, with Windows 10 taking off, a new streaming service and Apple actually taking the lead from Microsoft by re-tooling the iPad to be more like a Surface, the Redmond company is in a much better place. However, music remains very much Apple’s domain and it is unlikely that Groove Music will be challenging Apple Music or Spotify anytime soon. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli)