Don't trust a "certified financial planner" who doesn't read the fineprint ;-)

Jimonthy said in an earlier comment that to fill a 120GB Zune permanently would cost $45,000.

This is incorrect. Under the plan they are talking about, you cannot own ANYTHING permanently. The moment you stop paying, all your tracks are lost.

So he's right that it's more expensive, but wrong about how much. Depending on how long you live, could be WAY wrong. :)

Not that I'm advocating the Zune store but $15/month = $180/yr - assuming a 70 yr lifespan that would be $12,600 for life (provided there was no price hike).

Personally, I have too much music to fit on the old 160GB iPod classic - all bought as CD's, the only iTunes music I have are from the free Wednesday tracks and Diet Coke caps. I'm sure I've spent more than $12,600 (~£8,400) on music over the years - subscription should be cost effective for me. However, I buy CD's because I want to own CD's by particular artists - I don't want to pay money to artists whose material I would never be seen dead owning. It's also important to me to own physical copies of those CD's - downloads still don't have all of the lyrics/liner notes/artwork that physical copies have (plus the CD serves as a physical backup).

I love this part: "The ad does not mention however that subscribers can only permanently keep 10 tracks a month, and that any track not chosen to keep is lost should a person unsubscribe." The person writing this article doesn't get it. The ad is about value. The ad states it would cost $30,000 to completely fill an iPod with tracks purchased from iTunes. Let's assume that number is right. By comparison, for $15/mo a Zune user can fill the device with all the music they want. It would take 2,000 years at $15/mo to total the same amount. While you don't actually own the tracks under Zune's subscription model, you technically do not own DRM-protected tracks bought from iTunes either.

Are short sighted, when the sevice ceases to exist, all that money I dumped into it does what? DO I get to keep the songs if the service disappears? I have a feeling I am going to outlive the Zune Store, so the question of me paying for music until I die likely won't even come up.

.... is like subscribing to satellite radio or basic cable TV. When you stop paying the bill, all you have is a drawer full of receipt. Bad voodoo economics.

The last piece of music I bought was the soundtrack to "A Night at the Roxbury" back in like 1998.

I heart free downloads.

Best part is most of these services don't have near the catalogue Apple does. Most of the time I can find the music I want on iTunes, though when I try finding the artists I like on other services half the time I can find a few of the most popular, but if you like any indie acts forget about it.

Fact is I still sometimes have to buy CDs, or order albums from other services online if I want all the music that I want. Is Microsoft gonna refund that 15 bucks if I need to order a CD that they don't stock? Or do I only get to listen to Microsoft approved music?

Ever heard of Microsoft Play For Sure? That particular DRM scheme was discontinued by MS as of August 31, 2008 after a 4 year run.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure

The songs will stop working when the service disappears which is going to be a given.

Funny how MS is attacking Apple as if they were a threat to their business. If MS doesn't realize that their real threat is Google, they will definitely lose their lead and not know what even hit them.

It's probably been a year, but I've posted about this before. I've got Rhapsody's subscription service, and I love it. I've tried music I would have otherwise never considered. I'm sorry, but 30-second preview clips don't cut it for me.

Since my last post, there's been more than enough 3rd party solutions introduced that I pretty much have access to all my music, anywhere, anytime. I can even provide some argument that I have easier access to my music with DRM than you do without it.

So, I look at it this way: $180 annually buys me access to something like 6 million tracks. Sure, there's a few albums that aren't available. I can live with that. What does $180 buy you? Roughly 180 tracks. And please, don't even try to tell me that you like every track that you've ever bought.

I'll be disappointed, of course, if Rhapsody does shut down, but my music tastes are such that I probably wouldn't replace all the tracks I have "saved".

So, use as many exclamation points (and capitalized words) you feel are necessary to make your point, or click the thumbs down button because you think I'm an idiot. But the reality is I can't tell you the last time I bought a song from iTunes, but I can tell you that I use Rhapsody almost daily.

You want to listen to music you like for free?

http://www.pandora.com/

This works on Mac/PC/iPhone/iPod Touch/etc...
Plus iTunes has free radio by genre, and I'm not obligated to pay iTunes music store anything. That's $0 per month unless I want to buy something. Forget about subscription based services.

Here's the view of someone who says he actually likes the Zune:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/15/