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Microsoft finally shows why the Zune stands out against the iPod

I've written a few times about the Microsoft Zune and why I think the subscription model is a better value for all of us who have small personal music collections. When Microsoft changed their subscription policy and started giving you 10 free tunes a month as part of your $15 monthly fee it became a no-brainer to sign up for the Zune Pass and start to create or add to your personal music collection. Andrew posted on the new Zune ads that pit the Zune Pass against iTunes and clearly shows the significant price advantage of the Zune Pass.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer

I've written a few times about the Microsoft Zune and why I think the subscription model is a better value for all of us who have small personal music collections. When Microsoft changed their subscription policy and started giving you 10 free tunes a month as part of your $15 monthly fee it became a no-brainer to sign up for the Zune Pass and start to create or add to your personal music collection. Andrew posted on the new Zune ads that pit the Zune Pass against iTunes and clearly shows the significant price advantage of the Zune Pass.

While the $30,000 number may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is tough to argue that the Zune Pass is not a good deal. Assuming each song costs about $1, you are only paying $5 for the ability to listen to all the music you want each month while getting to buy and keep 10 songs to have with you forever. You could pay $10 on iTunes and get 10 songs, but that is all you could listen to for that price. I understand there are people with huge collections already, but for new digital music player fans and younger people just building up their collection, the Zune Pass is really the way to go.

I have also heard many iPod fans agreeing that the Zune desktop software is better than iTunes so what is the real advantage to the iPod and iTunes? The iPhone and iPod touch stand apart, but for dedicated music players I prefer the Zune devices over iPods because I find the navigation controls to be better and the hardware of the new Zune generation is solid.

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