Microsoft, a day after slashing prices of its Zune media player, Thursday threw a bone to fans of DRM-free music, offering a $15 per month Zune Pass subscription for essentially $5.
Microsoft said it would allow Zune Pass subscribers to keep 10 songs (worth around $10) per month that they can own, even if the subscription ends. Previously, copy-protection meant songs downloaded from the Zune marketplace would be disabled if the $15 per month subscription service expired.
“People want the freedom to listen to whatever they want across millions of songs, combined with the confidence that they can keep their favorite tracks forever,” Chris Stephenson, Zune’s general manager of global marketing, said in statement.
The DRM-free songs will be available from Sony BMG and Universal Music Group. Microsoft also inked agreements with EMI, Warner Music Group and several independent music publishers.
Microsoft rival Apple reportedly is in talks to add Sony and Universal Music Group to its iTunes Plus program offering DRM-free music downloads. Currently, EMI is the only publisher offering copy protection free songs through iTunes.
On Wednesday, Microsoft cut prices on its flash-memory based Zune media players. The software giant said it would slash $20 from its 4GB Zune to $99 while dropping the 8GB Zune by $10 to $139 and trimming its 16GB media device by $20 to $179.
In a statement, Zune marketing head Adam Sohn attributed the hardware price cuts to “realities of the market.”
“For the Zune team, future success will have as much to do with the marketplace/store and the subscription service as it does the hardware,” Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire told Cult of Mac.
