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Zune Pass finally comes to Canada, cuts rate to $10/month

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Zune-Canada

Microsoft’s unlimited music service, Zune, is now gracing PCs, Xboxes, and Windows Phones across Canada. It’s just too bad that we haven’t seen any new Windows Phone hardware in Canada pretty much since launch around this time last year. On top of spreading internationally, Zune’s subscription fee has been knocked down from $15 to $10/month, which is on par with what most music services are charging these days. The caveat here is that Microsoft is axing the 10 free monthly MP3 downloads. If you’re a diehard, don’t worry, you can grandfather in your downloads, so long as you keep paying up.

Although Microsoft has buried their portable music player, the streaming music service lives on in Windows Phone and Microsoft’s various other products. From what I’ve heard, the Zune Pass is actually pretty slick, though I’ve never signed up for it myself. I can vouch for the Zune desktop software, in any case- it’s smooth, visually rich, and practical for keeping your music collection in order.

The official Zune Pass rollout to Canada starts October 3, available for sign-up from the Zune Canada website.

P.S.: Hold out until the 0:36 mark in this video for a good laugh. Unless you’re a Zune fan.

[via]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • Avatar Roku

    “but that’s fine considering they were only accessible if you had an active subscription anyway.”

    That is wrong. The 10 MP3 downloads a month were yours to keep forever regardless of if you had an active subscription or not. The songs you buy on Zune are completely DRM-Free and can be listened to on any MP3 playing device.

    • http://www.intomobile.com/ Simon Sage

      Ah, you’re right! Thanks for the correction.

  • Avatar Roku

    “but that’s fine considering they were only accessible if you had an active subscription anyway.”

    That is wrong. The 10 MP3 downloads a month were yours to keep forever regardless of if you had an active subscription or not. The songs you buy on Zune are completely DRM-Free and can be listened to on any MP3 playing device.

  • Avatar Roku

    “but that’s fine considering they were only accessible if you had an active subscription anyway.”

    That is wrong. The 10 MP3 downloads a month were yours to keep forever regardless of if you had an active subscription or not. The songs you buy on Zune are completely DRM-Free and can be listened to on any MP3 playing device.