Zune Marketplace

Zune Marketplace was an online service from Microsoft that was integrated with Zune software, Windows Phone, and the Xbox 360 online store of music, videos and podcasts.

History
The store originally launched in 2006 with two million songs, and increased to six million, 90% of which were not protected by DRM. In addition to music, the Zune Marketplace featured podcasts, TV shows, music videos, and full-length films. Music in the Zune Marketplace was provided by companies such as EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group, as well as smaller music labels. Like other companies in the music business, Microsoft's Zune team included music, television, film experts and podcast experts responsible for editorial content and programming.

Zune Music Pass
Zune Music Pass was a music subscription service, which allowed subscribers to download an unlimited number of songs for as long as their subscription was active. Launched in 2008 as Zune Pass, the songs could be played on up to 3 Windows PCs and on up to 3 other Zune-compatible devices, but could not be burned to an audio CD. Songs downloaded using Zune Pass were provided in WMA format at 192kbit/s and were restricted by DRM. Zune Music Pass subscribers in the United States and other select countries were permitted to download and keep 10 songs per month as DRM-free MP3s, even after their $14.99 per month subscription ended. On October 3, 2011, Zune Pass was replaced by Zune Music Pass at a lower price of $9.99 per month, but without the 10 MP3 monthly credit. Existing Zune Pass subscribers were permitted to grandfather their old accounts until they were ultimately replaced.

Replacement
On October 16, 2012, the services were replaced by Xbox Music, which was also included with Windows 8 for PCs and tablets on October 26. In 2017, Microsoft notified users that the WMA DRM used by Zune Marketplace would cease to function on March 12 for users who installed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later. Users had an option to download DRM-free MP3 versions of the files from Groove Music as long as they had not been withdrawn by the copyright holders.