Not so clever as one might think. Weedshare.com has been doing this since their inception. Strangely enough, even though WMA is a Windows developed format, it remains incompatible in DRM’d versions, rendering the Weedshare.com format unusable until it is stripped of the DRM after purchase.

Coincidence? I think not.

“with the Zune flinging DRMed pig waste at the iPod” should be “with the Zune flinging DRMed pig waste at the DRM-armored iPod.” You know, because Zune doesn’t have anymore DRM than the iPod.

Ipod is the 800 pound gorilla. Zune is the 800 million dollar waste of time for microsoft.

I suspect in a year it will be like the sega dream cast, or that ‘virtual boy’ thing

Mark my words, Richard Bowles

over hyped idea. too complex for most people. iPods sell so well because they are simple to use. if you try to throw in some commerce model to listen/share/trade music everything becomes complicated and it will surely turn people off of Zune.

Sounds complicated. The theory behind it is interesting but not enough to make me buy. If its 1 credit for one purchase and 1 credit for one song, that means they will be giving away a lot of music. How do the artists feel about that?

Why all this talk about the Zune as iPod killer? Isn’t it more of a Creative Zen killer?

I’m sorry — I thought this was TechCrunch, not Crunchgear.

What’s with the cross posting?

I agree with cg, it just won’t work. You’ll first need to find someone else with a Zune player to share it with. it’s just one of these can-do-don’t-do features that PR people try to create a buzz around and that real people won’t use.

This may be where the rumors are coming from?

http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypoo.....rovski.pdf

This document was published by MS Research in May. It describes a technique for mobile DRM licensing and it appears they’re planning to enable the Weedshare model, which they mention specifically.

The feature requires connecting the Zune at least every three days. If I really like the song I need to connect the Zune to my computer ASAP. Otherwise I won’t be able to purchase it to get my credit.

I sometimes connect my iPod once a week. Even if I purchase a couple of things -songs, clips- I don’t always upload them immediately, especially the free song of the week.

I think the song sharing aspect of Zune may work with groups that interact frequently (high school/college).

It won’t change the older generations. Less interaction, the lack of a need for new music and potentially something that’s too difficult for them to understand will keep them with their iPods.

Finally, these players are more than music. Videos will continue to grow, especially amateur videos. iTunes-iPod have provided growth to podcasting. I believe that the same will happen between Apple and Google with videos. Users will have their iTunes-iPod-iTV setup and combine it with content from GooTube, not just iTunes. Trust me, this will happen.

Wow. OK sounds like the majority feel people are stupid. Cell phone users just dial other people. They can’t figure out all that “techie” stuff like their calendar or alarm clock right? They cannot “surf the web” or “check email” or god forbid, “click a picture” with their phone, right?

F*** man you read this KISS (keep it simple for us simpletons that “Tech Blog” or “cg” think music consurs are) bulls**** and you wonder how we finally got beyond dialing a number.

Whatever - just My2Cents.

Fact is a simple mass advertising campaign and a few peeps getting the concept and turning THEIR friends on to this viral sharing feature and Zune will kick some serious ass so watch out and mark MY smart ass words, Bowles.

Let’s see… burn a copy of a song I bought for a buddy and the artist makes nothing and all that’s in in for me is it makes me a criminal, OR…. share and earn and help the artist make their cut on each person who gets turned on down the line. I like this term: NO BRAINER! Seems to fit.

People, if you have an MP3 player….go get a ZEN! Not this POS Zune. The ZEN by far has the best features, the most support, and easily the best video resolution screen out there for videos.

If you haven’t checked out and used the Zen yet….do so. It’s amazing.

BTW- Creative Labs makes it

My simple thought:

If people got off their high horse bashing Microsoft (just for once), they’d see the same play against Apple that MSFT played against Sony/Nintendo. Will it work? Maybe…maybe not. But at least we have additional competitors in the market for media players and that’s a really good thing.

Not that MSFT are always do gooders, but I’m a big friend of competition and anything that drives it. So I hope the Zune (or any other player starts to give the iPod a run for its money), because that’ll benefit us consumers. And I’m all for better quality products at lower prices.

Congrats to those who try something…anything…. different.

Have you seen that episode of Southpark when everyone gets a Hybrid car? Thats what happens to people when they buy Apple products.

I’m waiting until next year once the 2nd round of Zunes come out. From CrunchGear this early model of the Zune, made by Toshiba, will be replaced and made entirely in-house by Microsoft. I’d rather wait and see what happens to the design.

This is how Tamago works also; http://www.tamago.us excpet with your computer…

hmmm…what most of you guys don’t get..is iPod/iTunes is 20th century technology spiced up with fancy plastic….its not like they didn’t have mp3 players or music stores in 99….

this is the future…including customers into your business model as full on participates which drive the business.

Think about…in today’s world, you buy a computer ($2K) and it sits there and you use it for boring stuff; in the future it will also be a portable ecommerce store…selling to others the things you’ve bought.

people understand money….seems to me the nay-sayers are Apple fans; and really don’t get it…cause…they’re Apple fans.

and yes, we have patents on this type of technology…so if you had brains…you’d realize the next relovolution is not going to happen on the web…it be personnal. p2p, device to device…centralization is what we’re really rebelling against…and the web is a centralized structure….its the same as a brick-an-morter store; except on the internet.

anyway….

I believe in Zune, you’ll see some crazy stuff going on in the next 6 Months that will simply require a firmware upgrade rather than buying a new device! (lol to ipod lovers).

You can also expect a software update to ‘zunify’ your WMPC05 device and Smartphones.

Cheers!

If Apple feels any hint of a sales decrease from the Zune I would be very surprised.

This will work. It’s a brilliant viral idea. Kids who collect friends on myspace are the same kids who will compete to see who can make the most zune points by sharing their music. I think microsoft’s zune’s empasis on the social aspect of media sharing is brilliant.

Ipods are nothing more than a harddrive with a easy-to-use interface. Proprietary wall gardens are not going to survive. The only reason iPods have dominated the marketplace is because of priatebay and kazaa. I bet almost 3/4 of all songs on a typical iPod is pirated.

While the zune won’t stop piracy, it’ll create a new egosystem for sharing and buying songs. If it gets to critical mass, it will be huge.

Lemon O’Brien - You are right on the money !!!

I see kids putting their own homemade videos and garage band clips on their zunes and attaching a cost-per-download. They share their media with others and make money if their friends buy their content. Imagine a profit-sharing youtube/myspace/iPod econony.

Zune needs to gain critical mass, but when it does, there is no limit to the potential of this idea. Maybe the second or third generation of zunes will do it.

There is a lot of IF talk about zune because it hasn’t done anything yet. I find the features interesting, but I don’t know if they will be able to build a mass of users fast enough. If there is signs that users really do like these features in practice, apple can adapt them, introduce a new ipod and go back to crushing the zune because they have the installed fan base that will go out and buy a new ipod.

I don’t know though. It just feels too tricked up for some reason – like the all in one cell phone with calendar, games, videos, kitchen sink thing. It will have some success I’m sure, but its not going to crush the ipod unless apple chooses to let it (wouldn’t be the first time they handed over a market).

well, IF microsoft bought my company…and I would sell for under a billion they could run cash through the system instead of credits…and let people sell whatever they want…and have the computer desktop software to go along with it…like iTunes.

it may not make a dent against the iPod, b/c iPod controls the market…but that is for now, today, not tommorrow…and I also hate the name…but if they bought my company, once again, http://www.tamago.us they would rule b/c its a perfect pairing. Also, we’re, i’m working on it now, putting community into…so you’ll have mySpace and p2p commerce mixed.

but in reality, they won’t buy my company, cause the higher ups, management level…will never know until it’s probably been bought by someone else; maybe Apple

oh yeah, once again…www.tamago.us

brandon says….It just feels too tricked up for some reason – like the all in one cell phone with calendar, games, videos, kitchen sink thing.

wonder if brandon will say that when the iphone comes out and it does music,video,wifigames, etc. prolly not.

all you have to know is that the zune is just a communication/storage device vs. ipod which is just a storage device. if microsoft didn’t care about copyright, the zune would be a huge hit right off the bat. imagine being able to send videos and songs that you already ripped from CDs to your friends via wifi. imagine if they cut a deal with youtube so you could download clips and share it. lots of potential. lots.

It’s certainly clever but it’s not the first instance of incentivizing people to share and recommend songs. I am the founder of AmieStreet.com, and we sell independent music based upon its demand among our members. All songs start free and rise in price the more they are purchased. Members can also recommend songs, and if the song they recommend goes up in price we reward them with credit in their account to buy more music. I’m flattered that Microsoft likes our idea enough to incorporate it into the zune.

Lemon/Worm you guys don’t get it. I don’t think that a Zune/YouTube/others selling video clips will happen. MS doesn’t get it. They don’t know how to do it. What will come out is a Google-YouTube/Apple partnership. The videos will be sold through Google (check out the agreement when you sign up for Google Video). Apple will provide the iTV-iPod combo to see those videos.

Am I biased towards Apple? Sure. But, I’m also biased towards Google and YouTube. They all have products/services that are simple, innovative, effective and efficient.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....pples-itv/