As purveyors of all Microsoft-related entertainment news some days we have to deliver bad news to good, loyal people. If you’ve been one of the many hanging on to your Zune Music Pass subscription and a compatible device now might be the time to let go. Microsoft has officially set a kill date for Zune Marketplace and the Zune Music Pass.
Microsoft announced it was finally putting an end to the Zune Music Pass and other services Zune HD, Zune 120 and Zune 30 still rely on this week in a Zune Retirement FAQ page on its support website. It’s not as if Zune users weren’t notified in advance that Microsoft wasn’t committed to supporting the service any longer. Microsoft morphed parts of Zune in Xbox Music and Xbox Video back in 2012. Ironically, both of those services are now known as Groove Music and Microsoft Movies & TV.
On November 15th Microsoft will retire every service that the Zune Software still connects to. This includes Zune Music Pass and the Zune Marketplace. Microsoft had already retired the Zune Video Marketplace, but users could still download music using their Zune Music Pass and get 10 free songs plus music streaming. The Zune Marketplace also offered podcasts, which also won’t work at all come mid-November.
The Zune Software will continue to still be available for download and users can still add MP3s to their device using it. Any downloaded through Zune Music Pass will stop working as those songs check Microsoft’s servers every month to make sure the user’s subscription is still active.
Microsoft says that it’ll convert all Zune Music Pass subscribers to Groove Music Pass automatically. Groove has apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, but users will need to rebuild the libraries they created with Zune Music Pass since Groove Music Pass handles subscription music differently.
We said goodbye to Zune Music Pass already, but it doesn’t mean we’re not broken up by the news. The en started out as ZuneSpring roughly 9 years ago this week.
