R.I.P. Zune

By Nick Wingfield
Bill Gates introduced the Zune at an event in Seattle in 2006. Also pictured is John Richards, a D.J. at a local radio station.Bill Gates introduced the Zune at an event in Seattle in 2006. Also pictured is John Richards, a D.J. at a local radio station.

Microsoft is sending Zune to the pasture where Microsoft brands go to die. It’s the end of the road for a name that once symbolized Microsoft’s grand plans to curb Apple’s entertainment ambitions.

In a flurry of announcements that Microsoft made Monday at the E3 games conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft executives said the company planned to introduce a new music service, Xbox Music, that would run on the Xbox 360 game console, Windows phones and Windows 8 computers. That service will come out sometime in the fall.

There was nary a mention of Zune, an existing Microsoft music and movie service, at the E3 event where Xbox Music was announced. But afterward, a Microsoft spokeswoman, Melissa Stewart, confirmed that the Zune brand is going away so Microsoft can use the better-known Xbox brand for its entertainment services, including its online video service.

Ms. Stewart said Zune Music customers who created playlists using the old service would still have access to those songs through the new Xbox Music service.

It was pretty clear that the days of the Zune name were numbered. Microsoft introduced Zune back in 2006, when the most exciting thing happening in the technology and electronics industry was Apple’s iPod and iTunes. Zune was both a music-playing device like the iPod and an iTunes-like service that allowed people to load their Zune players with music.

“Zune is a big investment for us,” Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, said at the time, adding, “It’s a vision that will carry us forward for years.”

The Zune was a failure in the market, coming too late to stop the iPod juggernaut and falling short of the high bar Apple had set. A version of the player that came out in 2009, the Zune HD, did little better. In the meantime, Apple shifted most of its focus in digital entertainment to the iPhone and iPad.

This shift eventually sank in at Microsoft, too. The company discontinued the Zune line of music players and the brand lived on as a music and video service for Xbox and the Windows Phone operating system. Xbox, meanwhile, turned into the crown jewel of Microsoft’s entertainment strategy, leaving little room for the tarnished Zune brand.