Zune has quite a soiled history in Canada but it seems that is changing slowly but surely. The MP3 player created by Microsoft took almost two years to reach America’s northern ally and even then the Marketplace and Zune Social were available to the early adopting Canucks. Though, it seems something went wrong and that all went away and become US and UK exclusive features in 2009.
Two years after that Microsoft got everything sorted out and finally re-launches the Music Marketplace back in Canada as well as allowing Canadians to take advantage of the popular Zune Pass, which allows unlimited music downloads and streams. This also came with a sharp downside to those not current Zune Pass holders, as Microsoft has revised the pass to no longer allow users to keep 10 tracks while reducing the price from $15.99 to $9.99 putting it on par with other services such as Spotify.
It seems for each step forward Microsoft takes one step back. Allowing users to keep 10 tracks in addition to the unlimited downloads set the service apart and made it the most popular music download model, now that Zune has lost this it will have a hard time competing against other services and remaining relevant. Though the ability to have access to this music on any Microsoft device such as the Xbox 360, Windows Phone and Zune HD may sway many who own such devices.
In addition to the music Zune Pass holders will also be allowed unlimited music video streaming as well, which will also be available on those devices mentioned prior. Canadian Zune users are rejoicing as they are only gaining from this news as they never had access to any music downloads and were unable to listen to the 30 second samples on the Zune.net site. This was a long time coming, and probably too long for some who long gave up expecting Microsoft’s support.
Source: Zune.net
