Microsoft Ad: It Costs $30,000 to Fill iPod
Microsoft has made tons of headlines with its Laptop Hunters series of advertisements. Microsoft has released the latest in its new campaign and surprisingly, it’s not about PCs, but rather media players.
Microsoft hired Wes Moss, a certified financial planner to explain the kind of money you’ll spend trying to fill an iPod with music as opposed to a Zune. The commercial is fairly straight forward. With iTunes' "a buck a song" pricing, you’ll spend $30,000 “filling the latest iPod.” With ZunePass, you can have unlimited music, for $14.99 per month.
However, there’s one tiny problem. The $30,000 versus $14.99 per month argument is all well and good but that assumes the user is starting out with no music library at all. Using Moss’s 120 GB iPod example, it’s hard to imagine someone buying a high capacity MP3 player if they don’t already own tons of music. It also doesn’t factor in peoples’ CD collections, photos, or videos they might want to store on their iPod.

Moss makes a good point. Who has $30K lying around to spend on music? And as a heavy consumer of music, I’m all for subscription based services. This ad would probably have worked better with one of the lower end iPods purchased by those who don’t have a huge music library and likely would be starting from square one. Then again, Microsoft wouldn’t get to tell you your Apple MP3 player is costing you $30K if they went with the Nano.
Check out the ad here. Oh and for those interested, Engadget points out that Wes Moss was booted off of Donald Trump's The Apprentice in week eleven.
So is sex in public. Turns out we weren't alone on the beach after all.
because its ilegal?
Now if only they would make the Zune in a variety of methods, along with a variety of accessories (like anything that keeps the user from having to worry about wires while they're exercising), I think I'd be all over this one.
That might make a nice article in the future. iPod accessories vs Zune accessories, and whether they are worth it or if they're just another little thing to try to nickel and dime you. $30 wall charger for the iPod, anybody?
aww so you didn't even have a chance to have it crash on you on new years?
So is sex in public. Turns out we weren't alone on the beach after all.
yes he was with a woman?
Do you PEE in public?
Are mininova and piratebay 100% legal, or do they have millions in demands from the music companies.
Getting back to the topic, imagine you have a band or you are a musician who isnt well known or famous, and you have a new track or recording you want to share with the world via the internet. Say you put this on piratebay or myspace or whatever... That is not illegal
So they are hoping you don't have any cd's at all and have no choice but to hand them over $1 per song, you see, i myself had an ipod but without the brainwashing, I'm smarter than that and man, did i have a hard time transfering my MP3's to that blasted ipod. So i traded it for a cheap-ass $40 emerson mp3 player and after having that i didnt care that i spent over $150 for that stupid ipod because for a $40 mp3 player, it can play WHATEVER YOU WANT! and i still use it today, hasn't failed me yet.
The moral: why pay more to pay even more for songs you already own? that's a....QOTD!
I think the lack of a touch screen is a plus for me... One less part of the device to power and the interface is the simpler style that the itouch ditched in favor of "t3h sh1nyz."
Some of it is very good, but because they haven't signed with a major label you likely will not have heard of them etc.
This commercial is (as pointed out already) pretty far off base. The point stands that for some people a subscription based model just makes more sense.
But for many, we have our established collection, and really only want 3-4 new songs added to it a month. That's $3-4 a month instead of $15.
Of course if either download model makes it a pita to actually use the songs that I paid for on my devices that I own...they can get bent.
And you'll get a ticket if you dont clean up after your dog...
Piratebay is not 100% ilegal either since you can upload your user created stuff. Thing is, if I created a song with my band and didnt copy anything, its legaly mine. Im not going to demand piratebay because people downloaded my song that I uploaded to the sight, I put it there for reason. piratebay is where it is because people uploaded songs that were not legaly theirs. itunes is legal because they have an official licence to sell their music.
First off, the RIAA would like you to stop ripping your CDs to MP3s. Anyone remember that Sony rootkit fiasco?
Second, how much did you initially pay for those CDs anyway? More than likely it was more than $1 a song.
Third, Photos don't take gigabytes of data, not at a resolution intended for an iPod. If you keep your 8mega-pixel photos in the default resolution taken by your camera, you could probably benefit from some photo resizing software.
Fourth, unless you transfer all your high-def camcorder videos to your iPod, you still won't have 120GB of space being used (and if I'm not mistaken, the iPod won't down-convert, so you have to have iPod-sized videos anyway).
In the end, how many people have a legal library of music and video they carry on their iPod that consumes the entire 120GB? No, I'm not counting professional photographers/videographers or people using their iPod as a flash-drive for computer backups. I'm also not talking about people who violate the DMCA by ripping thier DVDs into H.264 or download ripped music and video. I'm just talking average joes with a large, legal music or video collection. Not many people, and even those who do probably spent a fortune getting that library in the first place (i.e. microsofts $30k argument is still valid).
Do you pee in public? that's a... QOTD!