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Microsoft ads begin to target iTunes

updated 06:40 pm EDT, Mon May 11, 2009

MS targets iPod in Zune ad

In airing a new video, Microsoft has expanded its ad competition with Apple to encompass music support. The ad specifically targets the iTunes Store, and relies on a financial speaker named Wes Moss to criticize the value of buying tracks outright instead of subscribing to a service like the Zune Pass. At 120GB, claims Moss, the full-sized version of the iPod classic would cost roughly $30,000 to fill when using the iTunes Store.

The Zune Pass, by contrast, costs $15 a month, and lets users download an unlimited number of tracks. 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 latter music can also be synced only to Zune players.

Microsoft advertising has become intensely focused on Apple in recent months, a delayed response to Apple's long history of anti-Windows campaigning. The spearhead in Microsoft efforts has been the Laptop Hunters series of TV spots, which observe that comparatively-equipped PC notebooks are frequently cheaper than MacBooks. The company has been slowly eroding computer marketshare to Apple during the past several years.

 
Previous Comments

Ha ha.

05/11, 06:58pm (1 reply) reply

Great comparison. Yeah, if you bought ALL of your tracks through iTunes with the intention of filling up the classic, it certainly WOULD be expensive.

However, they fail to realize TRUE buying habits. Most people only purchase a handful of tracks a month. I know my personal buying of music is far less than $15 per month on average. I do however rent movies and buy TV shows which are nice to store on a classic. I can also use it as a portable hard drive to store files.

I would be willing to bet that not a single user has an iPod classic filled with ONLY purchased songs and has run out of space. Not too likely.

bjojade

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2007

+4

addisaster

05/11, 07:02pm reply

Love the comments on Youtube. :)

Nobody buys there songs exclusively on iTunes, some buy CD's at $20 a piece and others buy err nothing.

Who's buying Zunes, don't they have a better use for there advertising dollars?

Peter Bonte

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Joined: Aug 2001

+5

Comment buried. Show

subscription cervice

05/11, 07:14pm (1 reply) reply

I do like the idea of a unified subscription service, force $2/month for every internet account and let them download music and movies for free. We'll still buy physical media as a collectors item or to have better quality and make the industry six billion dollars a year in the US alone.

Peter Bonte

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

-11

A financial speaker?

05/11, 07:40pm reply

Getting a 'financial speaker' to promote a lifestyle product is exactly what Apple is constantly (and successfully) lampooning with their "I'm a Mac..." ads. The likelihood that many Classics would be filled with movies, photos and files and a bit of music has obviously escaped MS's attention. Even Apple knows that no-one is going to buy 120 GB of music. The 120GB Classic was introduced to tick a box. Everything is moving to the (at the moment) smaller capacity Touch.

martinX

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2008

+8

Who's still buy Zunes?

05/11, 07:41pm (2 replies) reply

I buy Movies, TV Shows, and albums! I just bought Metallica Collection for $100 that 15 albums! Zune audio well as Windows Media Audio is garbage. Who would want to rent their music instead of owning it? Stop paying the $15 a month then see what you be listening to then. Microsoft sucks!

LEStudios

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2008

+5

price of subscription

05/11, 07:57pm (1 reply) reply

To fill a 120GB Zune permanently, you'd have to subscribe for 3,000 months, at a cost of $45,000.

jimothy

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Joined: Sep 2000

+23

and...

05/11, 08:26pm (2 replies) reply

If you fill an iPod with existing CDs it costs nothing but time.

jpellino

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Joined: Oct 1999

+13

$15 a month?

05/11, 08:28pm (1 reply) reply

Okay $15 a month for music you don't own, the minute you stop paying for it you lose EVERYTHING! And all that money you spent monthly goes where? Down the tubes for NOTHING!!!!

When I buy music it is because I want to own it outright. Not rent it. Period! Subscriptions SUCK!!!

b9robot

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Joined: Feb 2009

+8

what else is new

05/11, 09:55pm reply

microsoft complaining about apple. boring.

Herod

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Joined: Jun 2007

+5

Napter redux

05/11, 10:43pm reply

Napster tried the exact same campaign against iTunes years ago. How did that work out?

Tarabella

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Joined: Feb 2000

+13

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