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Sharing
Sharing
Sharing is what Microsoft thinks of as the Zune's Killer App: the ability to beam a media file to your friend's Zune. My immediate thought was, "who wants to share?" I typically use my iPod on planes and subways and in the gym when I want to shut out other people, not invite them into an orgy of audio swapping.

My tests of sharing between two Zunes were thwarted by Microsoft's new Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. Even though I purchased music from the Zune Marketplace, and even though I was willing to abide by the DRM's restriction of allowing three plays of a shared song within three days, half the songs I tried to send wirelessly were rejected because, according to the Zune display, I lacked the rights to share those songs. Asked about this, a Microsoft spokesperson said DRM is complicated and that not all artists and labels adhere to the three days and three plays guidelines. Basically, you don't know what the rights are unless you right-click to check every song.

On the positive side, if I rip my own songs into MP3 files and add them to the Zune library, I can transfer them without restriction. On the negative side, the new DRM won't work with songs you might have bought from MSN Music, Napster or other online download sites that employ Microsoft's earlier DRM solution, "Plays For Sure." The irony would be funny, except that people who trusted Microsoft before are now going to get burned if they go with the Zune.

Kudos to Microsoft for adding wireless sharing to the Zune, a feature that the iPod lacks. But until it works, and works consistently, and comes up with something better than the 3/3 restriction, it's hardly a Killer App for me.
Microsoft takes on iPod The new Zune lets music lovers swap songs. Too bad Microsoft does better with the hardware than the software, says Fortune's Peter Lewis. (more)
Zune: Music industry's new BFF Company breaks from Apple with promise to pay music producers a royalty for each music player sold. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.