Microsoft thinks it costs $30k to fill an iPod

Anonymous

#1 – 7:31 AM May 12, 2009

Advertising offer distortions of reality, perversions of the truth, wild, exaggerated claims and just plain lies. That's always been the case. Don't bother to ridicule this, ignore it.

Wordguy

#2 – 7:42 AM May 12, 2009

Microsoft is using the same ad ploy that Napster used four years ago.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/technology-and-science/napster-commercial.asp

http://www.slyck.com/misc/napster_math.jpg

Anonymous

#3 – 7:47 AM May 12, 2009

THere is plenty of legitimately free content that can fill that ipod up.

Home movies, DVR recordings of broadcast TV, podcasts, ripped collections of old cassettes and records and CDs, photographs.

MS is stupid.

phisrow

#4 – 7:53 AM May 12, 2009

Oh Microsoft, you card, I'm sure you've heard of piracy...

edgore

#5 – 7:59 AM May 12, 2009

Actually, 30K is CHEAP if you include the cost of my RIAA settlements!

That said, I do wish that Apple would offer some kind of subscription service. While iTunes has managed to kill the record store quite effectively the next step is to kill commercial radio, and with Genius Apple has the tools in place to fill my iPod up with music that I will probably like, and may even buy if I ever had a chance to hear it. Going through the "You might like" links in the store is boring and time consuming...I would rather just have my free space filled up with music I don't own, but might like, along with a certain % of space given over to associated music videos and just slip them into my playtream. with an option to purchase from te store (oh, and if someone could make an app that would instead let me price check against Amazon MP3 and buy there if it's a better deal, all the better)

jjasper

#6 – 8:21 AM May 12, 2009

Record companies make more off of iTunes store purchases than they do off of subscription service fill-ups.

Anonymous

#7 – 8:39 AM May 12, 2009

Financial planner? This sort of insightful analysis and advice must explain the collapse of the economy.

Captcha = "brokus" Ah, synchronicity!

MichaelFoody

#8 – 8:43 AM May 12, 2009

I think this is a fair point. If you fill up your ipod with songs downloaded from itunes it is very very expensive. The fact that the ipod is largely incompatible with subscription services is a real strike against it. Sure if you pirate music or rip existing cds or download royalty free music or podcasts or even fill up your ipod with videos it can be much cheaper but it doesn't really change the argument that filling up an ipod with itunes is very expensive.

Anonymous

#9 – 8:50 AM May 12, 2009

I agree - I'm no fanboy here, I hate microsoft and apple equally - but it does indeed cost around $30K to fill up your iPod, using iTunes, legitimately, for a good majority chunk of the users.

midknyte

#10 – 9:00 AM May 12, 2009

Songs I buy [assuming I've paid a buck each] for my iPod are done and paid for.

ZunePass allows for 10 keepers a month. That's $1.50 per for those 10 songs (with the ZunePass monthly subscription of $15).

The walk-away price of filling up 120 Gig of iPod/Zune space with music you can keep per the ZunePass plan is actually substantially greater [$45,000]!

Alan

#11 – 9:04 AM May 12, 2009

The only thing I think that proves is that 120 gig is too much. And since there's a 120 gig Zune on the market...

MichaelFoody

#12 – 9:47 AM May 12, 2009

Midknyte That's true but: You get unlimited rentals. At $15 a month it would 30,000 would buy you 166 years of the zune service. I mean it's nice that you own the itunes songs (kinda) but if you pay for copyrited music zune pass is much cheaper. I don't personally take advantage of zune pass myself, but if you are trying to utilize 120 gigs legally it is a much better value unless you already actually own an enormous amount of music

midknyte

#13 – 9:50 AM May 12, 2009

> ZunePass allows for 10 keepers a month. That's $1.50 per for those 10 songs

...and that assumes that you had the presence of mind to elect to keep [those 10] songs. Each one of the allotment you fail to keep inflates further the cost of the ones you do...

midknyte

#14 – 9:54 AM May 12, 2009

> At $15 a month it would 30,000 would buy you 166 years of the zune service.

Good point.

Is there any allowance to skip a month or so of Zune subcription and not loose track of what you had selected to fill your player with?

stygyan

#15 – 11:00 AM May 12, 2009

What about my 160Gb iPod? I've ripped all of my music CDs (about three hundred) and still hadn't occupied 30 gigs...

O_M

#16 – 11:08 AM May 12, 2009

...Show me one person who has absolutely *no* pirated music on their iPlod or Zune, and I'll show you someone who doesn't exist.

Anonymous

#17 – 11:31 AM May 12, 2009

Because no-one uses their iPod for TV shows (larger file sizes), movies (even larger file sizes), or as external data storage.

Read #1 again and walk away from the idiot box.

Please. There are more important things to bicker about.

Anonymous

#18 – 11:36 AM May 12, 2009

"...Show me one person who has absolutely *no* pirated music on their iPlod or Zune, and I'll show you someone who doesn't exist."

My wife has none (well, ripped CDs are technically a grey area of copyright law, but the music was still paid for)- the zune pass works exceptionally well for her. Her listening habits fit very well with the idea of subscription and she rarely finds artists on Zune that don't offer their music to subscription (most of her music is smaller labels that are happy with what money they get).

MS may have done a poor job presenting their case, but for many people who consume huge amounts of music, the zune pass is an excellent bargain. My wife listens to music compulsively for a couple of weeks, loses interest, and gets new music. Legally obtaining the music would cost $30 or $40 a month fairly easily, and most of it she has no interest in after a couple of weeks. The stuff that sticks, so to speak, she can just acquire with her ten free songs. My one complaint is that while it technically, and legally, supports a couple of devices per zune pass, it uses the same live id. I have no desire to share a live id with my wife- I would rather her listening habits were not reflected in my zune card (and likewise mine with her zune card)- so while I technically *can* use her zune pass I don't. It would be nice if MS allowed multiple live ids to work with the zune pass.

The Lizardman

#19 – 12:12 PM May 12, 2009

@16 O M

I don't own and an ipod or a zune, so I have no pirated music on either but I am pretty sure I exist ;)

In fact, I have never had a single piece of pirated music on any mp3 player or other media device I have owned. I never saw the need. Of course, that just comes down to how I view and deal with music, I'm not saying I have never pirated anything but in terms of music I am completely free and clear.

bex

#20 – 12:22 PM May 12, 2009

Not actually relevant here is the UK as the Zune has never been sold in the UK

Enochrewt

#21 – 1:10 PM May 12, 2009

Wait, there's a 120GB Zune? That'll fit a fourth of my music on it!

*Runs off to buy a Zune*

Felix Mitchell

#22 – 12:54 AM May 13, 2009

I'm finding it hard to picture the kind of man who doesn't use his wife's music subscription service because her musical tastes will show up on his live id.

Anonymous

#23 – 9:17 AM May 13, 2009

You could just, you know, not FILL your ipod! I did eventually fill up my 4 gig nano back in the day, but never my 8gig iphone. Even if you want to look, functionality, screen of the 120 gig ipod there is no requirement that you FILL it. Do most people need or even want 150 hours of video or 2000 hours of music/podcasts/audiobooks? Money probably isn't the biggest factor. There just aren't 30,000 songs I like!

Anonymous

#24 – 11:04 AM May 13, 2009

"I think this is a fair point. If you fill up your ipod with songs downloaded from itunes it is very very expensive"

- which is why nobody has ever or will ever do this. Or does MS think that this "fact" didn't occur to....oh....a hundred million people?

Anonymous

#25 – 11:09 AM May 13, 2009

Each album on iTunes costs less than what we used to pay for CDs.
What's the problem?

I wonder what would it cost to fill my entire livingroom with CDs? How about just a closet?

Illegitimate concern.

Anonymous

#26 – 11:21 AM May 13, 2009

Great argument! This is exactly why I don't fill my car with cheeseburgers or fabrege eggs - it's just too expensive!

Anonymous

#27 – 2:09 PM May 13, 2009

Hmmm... what if I go to the library, check out disks, take them home and rip them to my zune/ipod, and then take the disk back for free?

Anonymous

#28 – 4:15 PM May 13, 2009

who pays for music anymore? honestly. i pay for stuff i can't illegally download, and that's very, very little. even my 53 year old mother asked me to download a p2p engine for her so she won't have to pay for her music.

and i agree with those who pointed out the fact that it's rare that the common person actually fills a 120g ipod to capacity.

Anonymous

#29 – 5:51 PM May 13, 2009

Gotta love the way that filling an ipod for $30000 is presented as a necessary burden that hinders the lives of every poor ipod user.

Maybe this is why Ballmer won't let his kids have one?