A few days ago there was an article on the BBC News site entitled
Zune problems for MSN customers which stated
But in a move that could alienate some customers, MSN-bought tracks will not be compatible with the new gadget. The move could also spell problems for the makers of MP3 players which are built to work with the MSN store.
...
The problem has arisen because tracks from the MSN Music site are compatible with the specifications of the Plays For Sure initiative. This was intended to re-assure consumers as it guaranteed that music bought from services backing it would work with players that supported it. MSN Music, Napster, AOL Music Now and Urge all backed Plays For Sure as did many players from hardware makers such as Archos, Creative, Dell and Iriver.
In a statement 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." The spokesperson continued: "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."
...
Microsoft said that its Windows Media Player will recognise Zune content which might make it possible to put the content on a Plays For Sure device. However, it said it would not provide customer support to anyone attempting this.
On a similar note there was an article entitled Trying Out the Zune: IPod It’s Not in the New York Times today which states
Microsoft went with its trusted Windows strategy: If you code it, the hardware makers will come (and pay licensing fees). And sure enough, companies like Dell, Samsung and Creative made the players; companies like Yahoo, Rhapsody, Napster and MTV built the music stores. But
PlaysForSure bombed. All of them put together stole only market-share
crumbs from Apple. The interaction among player, software and store was
balky and complex — something of a drawback when the system is called
PlaysForSure.“Yahoo might change the address of its D.R.M.
server, and we can’t control that,” said Scott Erickson, a Zune product
manager. (Never mind what a D.R.M. server is; the point is that
Microsoft blames its partners for the technical glitches.) Is
Microsoft admitting, then, that PlaysForSure was a dud? All Mr.
Erickson will say is, “PlaysForSure works for some people, but it’s not
as easy as the Zune.”
So now Microsoft is starting over. Never
mind all the poor slobs who bought big PlaysForSure music collections.
Never mind the PlaysForSure companies who now find themselves competing
with their former leader. Their reward for buying into Microsoft’s
original vision? A great big “So long, suckas!” It was bad enough when there were two incompatible copy-protection standards: iTunes and PlaysForSure. Now there will be three.
(Although
Microsoft is shutting its own PlaysForSure music store next week, it
insists that the PlaysForSure program itself will live on.)
Microsoft’s
proprietary closed system abandons one potential audience: those who
would have chosen an iPod competitor just to show their resentment for
Apple’s proprietary closed system. To make matters worse, you
can’t use Windows Media Player to load the Zune with music; you have to
install a similar but less powerful Windows program just for the Zune.
It’s a ridiculous duplication of effort by Microsoft, and a double
learning curve for you.
So how is the Zune? It had better be pretty incredible to justify all of this hassle.
As it turns out, the player is excellent.
On days like this, I miss having Robert Scoble roaming the halls in the B0rg cube. It sucks when you let the press tell your story for you.