Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to say our goodbyes to the device that few of us owned, but all of us joked lovingly about: the Zune. Microsoft has announced a permanent discontinuation of Zune music services, effective November 15, 2015.
THE ZUNE
The first Zune player was released in 2006, five years after the original iPod classic made its retail debut in 2001. The player was accompanied by the Zune Marketplace software, Microsoft’s answer to the iTunes music store. Microsoft continued to release updated models of the Zune player through the Zune HD in 2009, but that’s where it all began to end. Zune had sold around 2 million units as of 2008. Apple sold its one hundred-millionth iPod in 2007.
It isn’t that the Zune was a low-quality product. It’s just that the iPod more effectively grabbed the market, as Apple products tend to do. It was released years earlier, became cost-effective more quickly, and the sleek design was hard to complain about. Zune players did have a few features that the early iPod models never really incorporated, such as wireless sync and social song-sharing options. But somehow, the Zune never stood much of a chance against the iPod’s smooth interface and novel allure.
WASN’T IT ALREADY RETIRED?
This news doesn’t feel like news to many. Most of us may have imagined that Zune was already an artifact of the past. Microsoft discontinued the production of Zune hardware back in 2011 and started encouraging users to switch over to the Windows Phone for music playback options. The Zune.net URL has redirected to the Xbox domain for some time now, since Microsoft began lumping the Zune Marketplace together with its online Xbox products in 2012.
The announcement is mainly important for the folks still using the Zune Marketplace music service to stream and download content. That service will disappear by November 15, and users with leftover credit or memberships will be transferred to the Microsoft’s new Groove Music, the company’s answer to Apple Music and other burgeoning streaming services.
Of course, your Zune player itself won’t suddenly stop working in November (although you may lose access to certain content if it’s under licenses that can no longer be renewed through the online service). That is, assuming it’s still alive, you know where it is, and you actually had one in the first place. So maybe after you eek out those last drops of sentimental value, it’s time to lay that player to rest and crawl out from under your rock. It’s fun out here–we have iPods.
