Zune Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

A quick note to let you know that I've updated the International Zune User's Guide. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday going through every part of the article, seeing what was new, and what was the same, updating it for the Zune HD era we now live in. About a month ago I had my buddy Grahm Skee from ABI send me a couple of Zune Pass cards in the mail - the one-month pre-paid cards that sell for $14.99 - and guess what? They worked! So if you live outside the USA and want a Zune Pass, this is the only way I'm aware of for you to get it. Sadly, there's still no way to get any video content other than music videos - hell, I can't even watch the movie trailers. Really Zune team? Even the movie trailers have to be IP-blocked? Sheesh. :-(

Well, colour me impressed - HMV, a CD and DVD retail chain store in Canada, has launched an online music store. We had a few of them already, but most were re-branded and based on Puretracks on the back end, and up until recently that meant DRM-laden WMA files. Puretracks has been transitioning over to MP3s, but I find their store cumbersome to use. HMV Digital on the other hand, reminds me a lot of Amazon.com's MP3 store - fast, fluid, and simple. The music is in 320kbps MP3 format, which is excellent, and most tracks are 99 cents with a few in the $1.29 range. Albums are in the $9.99 range, and you don't even have to install a downloader if you don't want to - the albums come down in a single ZIP file. And best of all? They allow you to re-download your purchases up to five times, so if you happen to have a data wipe-out, you can get your music from them again. I'm not sure how deep their catalogue goes, but for new releases, this is where I'm going to be doing my shopping. Nicely done HMV!

Just a quick note for our Canadian readers: Future Shop is having a one-day online sale on the Zune, offering the 8 GB Zune in black, red, or blue for $99 CAD. Also included is a free armband and a $30 "song card" (not sure where that's from). Or, if you're interested in the black 16 GB, it's $50 off and selling for $159 today.

"Toronto, ON, March 11, 2009 - Beginning today, Zune Canada will conduct a month-long search to find Canada's hottest undiscovered band or artist to perform at the Zune Concert Series, Canada's biggest free outdoor music festival taking place April 17-26 during the 2009 TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival. As part of its commitment to emerging Canadian artists, Zune is supporting musicians working to break out and gain industry exposure with the Zune Concert Series Competition. Bands and artists are invited to upload an original music track at www.zune.ca to enter the competition. Music fans will be able to listen and rate selected tracks from participating bands, and have the chance to win a trip for two to see the selected band play live at the 2009 TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival."

As a former "professional" musician (I got paid for gigs I did when I was in a band, so I can technically say that, hehe) I'm always interested in seeing ways that aspiring bands can make it to the big time - because for all the bluster about the Internet "changing everything", many bands still need the muscle of a record label to get their music out to the general public. I've bought more music from bands I've heard on TV shows than I have of bands that I've discovered purely online. The fact that the winning band gets hooked up with a mentor is also pretty cool! The remainder of the press release is after the break. Read more...

Our Canadian Zune launch contest is over, and the winner is Crafty501. Thanks to everyone for entering - I enjoyed reading about the Canadian artists that people enjoy listening to. Special thanks to the Canadian Zune team at Microsoft for donating this Zune Original to us for the contest. I haven't yet seen the Zune in any retail stores, but I haven't looked either. I've seen it promoted quite heavily via Future Shop and Best Buy though, and on the front page of Amazon.ca for a time.

Amazon.ca is listing the Zune for pre-sale, showing the release date as tomorrow. Prices are at a slight premium over the US prices: the red Zune 8 is $179.00 CAD (versus $164 USD), and the two Zune 80 models are $259.99 CAD each (versus between $238 and $249 USD). What I find most interesting here is that Amazon only has the red Zune 8 - no other colours, and no Zune 4 models. Will they be getting more, or did they chose to go with the most popular models of the Zune and leave it at that?

I had my first experience with Zune tech support on Tuesday, and overall it was a pretty good experience - here's what the techs had to say about each of my devices.

The Dusty White Zune: After we discussed the dust, and he saw a photo of it online at this site, the tech first suggested that I return the Zune to the retail store that I purchased it from. He said there was a two to three week wait on getting it repaired, and that returning it was easier. Not wanting to reveal I was in Canada just yet, I said that I had purchased the Zunes on November 14th, so it was unlikely that any store would take back a product two months old and exchange them. The tech insisted that many stores would. That's when I broke the news that I was in Canada and there was no place to return it to. He then agreed that shipping it back for repair was about the only option.

The Wonky Black Zune: I explained the problem, and the tech was quite surprised at the behaviour I was seeing. He suggested that it might be a software problem, so he had me do a hard reset, wiping out the content and restoring it to the 1.0 firmware (I think that's what was restored at any rate). I was dubious that would work, but it couldn't hurt to try. After the hard reset, he had me connect it to the Zune desktop software and re-flash it with the 1.2 firmware. The entire process was fast and easy, but at the end of it the problem still remained. He said I'd need to ship it back for repair/replacement. Read more...

"Yes! You can buy your Zune in Canada. Ok, you have to order it online, but it’s in Canada, with Canadian dollars and Canadian taxes. If you like the black Zune, the price is also excellent. Tigertdirect.ca is selling it for $269.97CAD. But the white and brown Zunes are more expensive and are going for $317.99CAD. We checked other online Canadian stores, like bestbuy.ca, amazon.ca, futureshop.ca, but none of them are selling the Zune yet. Obviously, they are not doing that with Microsoft agreement. But if you are Canada and you were going to order a Zune from the US anyway, this may be a good alternative for you."



Ok, I didn't see this one coming at all. I knew it was possible to order the Zune from eCost, who ships to Canada, but it ends up being quite expensive and a bit of a hassle. TigerDirect, on the other hand, is based in Canada and I order from them all the time. The brown Zune is $317.99, as is the white one, but the black is a bargain at only $269.97 Canadian. I brought back a brown Zune for my friend Matt, and it ended up costing him $314.96 Canadian by the time it was all said and done. I feel good then that, with GST (our tax here in Canada), the brown Zune would have cost $337 plus shipping...so he still got a good deal with me as his courier. If you're in Canada, and want a Zune, looks like here's your hookup!