Microsoft has pulled the plug on its failed music service, Zune while Apple has pulled the plug on the Beats Music streaming service.
It was only nine years ago that Microsoft was telling us that their Zune Player and their Zune Music service was set to be the next big thing in consumer products.
Now like their Windows smartphones consumers have shunned the Microsoft developed product in favour of superior products from their competitors. Consumers are also dumping the Microsoft Xbox in favour of the PS4.
The company’s Zune players and digital music service were launched in 2006 to rival Apple’s iPod and iTunes.
Like a lot of things made by Microsoft Zune had no consumer appeal Zune hardware was discontinued in 2011.
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In Australia at the launch of Windows Vista Microsoft rolled out a brand to announce that they had cut a deal with a major music group to supply music streaming for Windows users, it never happened with the Company who was looking to partner with Microsoft walking away after telling ChannelNews that Microsoft management in Australia were “A load of arrogant self-serving pricks”.
Last Sunday, the Zune music download and streaming service was quietly retired.
Any remaining Zune players will still work as an MP3 player, but will no longer be able to stream online music.
Microsoft said the last remaining Zune subscribers would be switched over to its Groove music platform which is also struggling to compete up against Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and Google Music.
Apple has also announced that it would shut down Beats Music, a move that comes less than six months after the premiere of Apple Music.
All Beats Music subscriptions will be cancelled on Nov. 30, but those who move to Apple Music will quickly discover that the $10-a-month streaming alternative incorporates many of Beats’ features.
While the death of Beats Music (Beats’ consumer electronics business will live on) may upset some users, it’s perhaps no surprise. In fact, one could argue that it’s surprising that it took Apple this long to shutter the service.
Apple bought Beats last year for $3 billion in large part for the technology behind its streaming-music service. Unlike so many recent acquisitions, Apple let Beats Music live on instead of its more typical strategy of immediately shutting down acquisitions after incorporating their technology into its own products.
Since 2013, Apple has made nearly three dozen mostly small acquisitions or acquihires, a tactic in which it will acquire a company’s employees but not the firm itself.
It usually keeps quiet about them, although Beats is an exception to that rule because of its size. Usually, Apple will neither confirm nor deny that it has made an acquisition or acquihire, saying only that it will, from time to time buy start-ups.
While its canned statement does little to satisfy those who want more details, nearly all of the companies that have been bought by Apple have confirmed it through their LinkedIn pages or on their own websites.
