Farewell to Zune

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As I write this, within a few hours, the Zune Service is expected to end per earlier announcements. What exactly will happen with the functionality of the Zune 4.8 software, will be only that limited functionality will remain.

I am sad. I loved the Zune player – especially the ZuneHD. I still use the ZuneHD rather than the phone because of the storage space, and the fact that battery consumption is way better on the ZuneHD player than any phone I have used or seen.

zune

It is likely that download subscription content will start to fail at some point once media usage rights need to be re-queried. All other DRM-free MP3/WMA media should still play as expected. I imagine that the device sync will still work as well. I had the pleasure of keeping the 10-song-a-month feature thanks to the grandfather policy. Since this will be ending, I made sure to use my song credits this last time. The songs I chose were:

  • Lou Reed – What’s Good
  • Roxy Music – Avalon
  • Wendy Bagwell – Here Come the Rattlesnakes
  • Warren Zevon – Boom-Boom Mancini
  • The Cramps – I was a Teenage Werewolf
  • Blondie – X-Offender
  • Tom Petty – Straight Into Darkness
  • Deep Purple – Hush
  • Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water
  • Deep Purple – Highway Star

(Yes, I have an eclectic variety of tastes)

So What Happens Next?

Per the following KB article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3096659

Existing Zune Services will be converted to Groove Music (formerly XBOX Music) – not to be confused with that other software Microsoft acquired over a decade ago. I’ll be trying to use my ZuneHD with this service.

zunes

I used every Zune device that was released and still have them – including the original Zune30 from 2006. I am somewhat sad.