Music News Bulletin - 20/11/08

Microsoft enhances the Zune service with MP3s November 20, 2008
"Subscription music services -- the kind that let you hear an unlimited amount of music per month for a flat fee -- made their debut almost seven years ago, and yet the public remains stubbornly cool to the idea of paying for music you don't get to keep. Now, Microsoft is offering the first significant sweetener to the deal since the services added portability by letting subscribers to the Zune Pass service keep some of the songs they play. Ten, to be precise, and the songs will be in the DRM-free MP3 format." [LATimes]

Dell: It's not about the music player November 11, 2008
"Like a popular mayor declaring he's not going to run for president after all, Dell has scrapped plans for a new MP3 player and subscription service, according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, Dell says in a blog post, the company's strategy "has never been about a music player." Glad we got that straightened out, but I actually liked the idea of Dell developing an inexpensive WiFi-enabled player that could tune in streams from a variety of sources. The secret sauce behind the rumored player was software from Zing, a Silicon Valley start-up that Dell acquired last year." [LATimes]