Music lovers who have bought tracks from Microsoft’s MSN Music store are in for problems if they buy Microsoft’s new Zune. Microsoft has announced that it will stop selling music from MSN music from November 14, the time when Zune will hit the shelves in US.
The point that users might be peeved is the fact that that tracks bought from MSN Music will be Zune-incompatible.
Actually, the reason for this problem is that the tracks in MSN Music site are compatible with the Plays For Sure initiative specifications, which is a kind of a standard enabling bought tracks playable with any MP3 player such as the Apple iPod. .
On this a Microsoft spokesperson said:
Since Zune is a separate offering that is not part of the Plays For Sure ecosystem, Zune content is not supported on Plays For Sure devices. We will not be performing compatibility testing for non-Zune devices, and we will not make changes to our software to ensure compatibility with non-Zune devices.
However, if you buy music from MSN, burn them in CD and change them to make them compatible with other players, you would be able to listen to the tracks. Microsoft has assured that its Windows Media Player will recognize Zune content that means it may be possible to put the content on a Plays For Sure device. However, MS will not provide customer support to those who attempt doing this.
In my opinion, this is might look like a long-term strategy of Microsoft to divide the MP3-players’ camps - one that will be of Zune and the other that will have iPods, iRivers etc.
