Zune Launch Date and Pricing Details Revealed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Music, Portable Audio / Video

For all of you that have been holding your breath for the Microsoft Zune, the company has finally released details on pricing and launch date. As it turns out, the Zune will drop on November 14, 2006 and will retail for $249.99 USD - the same price as the 30 GB iPod. While the Zune will also feature wireless Zune-to-Zune transfers of music, photos, and personal recorded video, as well as an integrated FM tuner (but won’t allow for time-shifting of radio,) one really has to wonder if Microsoft priced this thing correctly. Our personal opinion is that the Zune should have undercut the price of the iPod by at least $20. To soften the blow, Microsoft is including quite a bit of free content on the Zune at purchase, all of which is listed after the break.

The company has also made known how the payment system on the Zune Marketplace will work, as consumers will use Microsoft Points (yup, the same ones you use on your Xbox 360) as the method of payment on the Marketplace - or they can just pick up a monthly Zune Pass for $14.99 USD to get access to the complete Zune music library.

LIST OF ZUNE PRE-LOADED CONTENT:

Audio Tracks

• Band of Horses, “Wicked Gil” (Sub Pop Records)
• Bitter:Sweet, “The Mating Game” (Quango Music Group)
• CSS, “Alala (Microsoft edit)” (Sub Pop Records)
• Darkel, “At The End of The Sky (edit)” (Astralwerks)
• Every Move a Picture, “Signs of Life” (V2)
• Small Sins, “Stay” (Astralwerks)
• The Adored, “Tell Me Tell Me” (V2)
• The Rakes, “Open Book” (V2)
• The Thermals, “A Pillar of Salt” (Sub Pop Records)

• 30 Seconds to Mars, “The Kill” (Virgin Records)
• BT, “1.618” (DTS Entertainment)
• Chad VanGaalen, “Red Hot Drops” (Sub Pop Records)
• Coldcut featuring Roots Manuva, “True Skool” (Ninja Tune)
• CSS, “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” (Sub Pop Records)
• Fruit Bats, “Live: The Wind That Blew My Heart Away” (Sub Pop Records)
• Grandaddy, “Elevate Myself” (V2)
• Hot Chip, “Over and Over” (Astralwerks Records)
• Kraak & Smaak featuring Dez., “Keep Me Home” (Quango Music Group)
• Kinski, “Live: The Snowy Parts of Scandinavia” (Sub Pop Records)
• Paul Oakenfold, “Faster Kill Pussycat (Featuring Brittany Murphy)” (Maverick Records)
• Serena-Maneesh, “Drain Cosmetics” (Playlouderecordings)

• 5 Boro: “A New York Skateboarding Minute” (Skateboarding)
• Radical Films: “Kranked — Progression” (Mountain Biking)
• TGRTV The North Face (Skiing/Snowboarding)

• A variety of images to personalize a Zune device, including 12 classic rock posters from “Art of Modern Rock”