Content is king lesson lost on Microsoft and Zune

Stan Beer
Monday, 20 November 2006 05:09

Opinion and Analysis

I downloaded and played around with the Zune software the other day, which is about all us folks outside the US can do for a year or so. Anyway the Zune media player looks good. I also hear tell that the Zune player itself is very good. However, there's something about the whole Zune experience that gives me the feeling that Microsoft still doesn't get it.

The often repeated mantra that content is king on the Internet seems to have been lost on Microsoft. They already had a widely used media player and a network of stores packed with content unified under a single DRM called PlaysForSure. All that was missing was Microsoft's own music player and online store.

Yet, Microsoft decided to forgo all that ready made content, stab its partners in the back, and start from scratch with a skeleton online music store.

From early reports, the Zune launch has made as much impact on the music player market as a rotten tomato thrown against a brick wall. Why? Could it be perhaps that there's very little content on the Zune Marketplace? No movies, no TV shows, no podcasts, less choice of music than iTunes?

People already have Windows Media Player on their desktops, yet Microsoft forces them to download an incompatible clone if they want Zune. Compared to iTunes 7, which took about five minutes to download, the Zune software download took nearly 30 minutes - for a Windows Media Player lookalike! Then they have to use Microsoft money instead of real money to buy music from the Zune store.

New Zune owners can download any music to their players except those purchased from any other online store, including all those PlaysForSure stores that Microsoft supports. The Zune could have been from the very start a player with access to a range of content even surpassing that of iTunes. Now it is a music player that is every bit as restrictive and closed as the iPod and iTunes package but without the advantages.

Some might ask the question: if Apple can do it with iPod and iTunes, why can't Microsoft do it with Zune and Zune Marketplace? The answer to that is obvious. Apple were first!

Apple set up iTunes when the only alternative was illegal file sharing stores. Apple built the iTunes and iPod connection through clever marketing when nobody else was connecting music players to online stores. They made it easy and relatively inexpensive to buy music online, a single track at a time. No enforced block purchases with points that treat consumers like idiots; no subscription schemes which have largely been dismal failures. Just a simple straight online cash transaction that enables you to pay just for what you get.

As a result, iTunes has expanded its range of content dramatically and the iPod keeps selling like crazy.

Once again, from all accounts the Zune is a nice player. However, you're not going to convince people to ditch all the songs and videos they've downloaded to switch to Zune which has limited content on its online site - especially iPod users.

Many consumers are quite rightly opposed to DRM restrictions for paid online downloads altogether. However, if we are forced to have DRM restrictions, Zune and PlaysForSure would have been a nice pair. It would have give the Zune what it sadly lacks - content.