I’m not going to argue with your experience with the Zune marketplace. Even Microsoft people admit that the selection is limited compared to other stores and services. It is a simple fact that there are fewer songs available on Zune than there are on iTunes of the Amazon MP3 store. Plus, the whole point of a subscription service is to avoid paying for individual songs. That’s how Zune is marketed, after all, as a monthly fee against the entire cost of ownership of an iPod / iTunes library. So in that respect the Zune marketplace has failed.

I’m surprised you think my previous comments were “going off.” I never claimed Apple’s rumored service would be unique. My point wasn’t about the general availability of streaming services or silverlight. I found that argument incoherent, and it also seemed to be pushing discussion into an Apple / Microsoft argument, which is frankly boring and irrelevant.

If you don’t like my columns, read the other columns at Slashgear. I’m only one person, and Slashgear doesn’t tell me about what to write. In fact, they only tell me what about what I should not write, and that’s mobile, because they feel they have plenty of great coverage already in that area. Can you unsubscribe from a free Web site? I guess that’s a question of terminology.

You hope they fire me? That’s pretty mean, right? You hope that I lose my job because you disagree with my tone? I have never wished such a thing on anyone, and that overreaction and rudeness completely contradicts your previous argument.

Thank you for the link anyway, and yes…it is of absolute importance imo to have mp3′s be a high bit rate.

I was in Dallas visiting a friend. He had some questions about his high fi set up (high end audio gear). He wanted to know why his bass was weak, the sound was thin and completely emotionless.

He was showing his sub placement, his settings etc etc. We played many “reference” songs from his collection and it all sounded terrible.

None of the music is stuff I listen to however, I have never listened to what my friends do…so I asked him what CD’s he had to listen to. Again, same crap (imo) but he did have a CD from the band Garbage. I never really liked them, but know of some of their songs. We put in the CD and listened to the one song I liked.

He then asked what I did to fix the sound because it sounded amazing, and had not sounded this good in 3 years.

My answer was the CD is not compressed as heavily as mp3′s are…and that if he wanted to make the system go from good to stellar to go buy a 500 dollar turntable from Music Hall and get some vinyl.

However, I disagree in you comment hear that zune sucks. The Zune HD player in and of itself is light years ahead of my ipod (or even the touch) and the zune service makes itunes look like a model A ford.

I just spent an hour looking at the zune marketplace typing in every band I could think of in my collection of 1000+ CD’s (not saying I typed ALL the bands in, that would take forever), but I chose the most popular artists as you suggested and I could not find any issues with missing albums. I did see some singles were not in the market place, but the same goes for itunes.

When you go off on someone like you did John Bascom, you come across as a silly ape. I am sure you will respond to this in some way to belittle me, that is your style after all. I guess all we can do as readers of slashgear is to either

A. unsubscribe
B. ignore your worthless rants
C. hope they fire you

I think that whether you like a piece of music because you are trying to relate to or trying to reject a person with whom you associate the tunes, you’re taste is still heavily influenced by people.

I wouldn’t say the lousy music my friends make has more artistic merit, but it does have more meaning for me, and it would certainly be lost if cloud-based services become the dominant paradigm.

I agree with you about the watery tarts, but I’m not talking about “music appreciation” in general, more the way we relate to the music we enjoy, and the danger that relationship is facing.

You can even use it on your mobile device. It’s great when your visiting friends for example: just connect your phone to a stereo and start streaming. If they have WiFi, even better.

Spotify still haven’t been able to enter the US market because of “licensing agreements with record labels and local publishing rights societies”, as they put it.

The point: Apple is years late (again) yet tries to take the credit (again).