iTunes costs a lot; Zune Pass costs a little. You do the math

From Engadget 11/05/09:

We've been wondering when we'd see the next Laptop Hunters ad from Microsoft, but it looks like the company's throwing a change-up: its latest 30-second spot features Wes Moss, Certified Financial Planner, explaining that iTunes "costs a lot" while Zune Pass "costs a little." The argument, of course, is that at a buck a song (or more), filling up your iPod costs way more than the $15 / month cost of the Zune subscription service.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have recognised that Wes Moss, Certified Financial Planner, is a contestant from series 2 of The Apprentice that aired a few years ago. By ‘the Apprentice’ I mean the US version with Donald Trump - you know, the ‘real’ Apprentice …. the one actually worth watching. Wes, as I recall, didn’t fair too well in Trump’s boardroom who was fired about mid way through the series. But not before he had chance to show off his driving ‘skills’ at the wheel of a small lorry, who manoeuvred it through the backstreets of New York as if it were a dodgem car.

For what it’s worth, I have never actually bought anything via the iTunes store, though I do use it to automatically download new podcasts for my iPod, which form the majority of the content I consume while commuting. I have a large enough music collection for my needs and certainly don’t consider myself rich enough to be downloading en masse from the iTunes store. Equally, if I were a Zune user, I’m not sure I’d be rushing to sign up for this monthly-subscription based account - as engadget point out:

“most people have plenty of music from all kinds of sources already, and an additional monthly bill in the current economy doesn't seem all too appealing”.

Quite right. But “all kinds of sources” strikes me as a touch euphemistic. I’m reading those words primarily as meaning ‘bit torrent’ and other dubious sources.  ;-)