This is very exciting. I will be signing up for a free trial soon, once I've scouted my favorite artists.

If I've had a ZunePass for a while, how can I determine what day my credits will reset?

@ Kregger

Go to your account details page at Zune.net. All your details are in there.

Man, when I renew my pass I am totally downloading some Boston tracks.

Don't forget us in Canada!Zune - Zune Marketplace - Zune Pass = Less Love :'-(

Oh, one more question Cesar: do the 10 tracks have to be subscription tracks, or can I get any 10 from the whole marketplace?

Hey i was wondering...if I get the free trial of the Zune Pass do I still get to get those free 10 tracks?

Espi sez: "do the 10 tracks have to be subscription tracks, or can I get any 10 from the whole marketplace?" - you can get tracks that are available for subscription, or for purchase only. However, tracks that are "album only" meaning that you need to buy the whole album, won't be available as part of your 10.

Binary: free trial won't give you 10 tracks.

what's the bitrate of the mp3 files?

jax - 320 kbps

It would double usability if you could "buy" a track already in your collection. At least if you use the Pass to experiment with new music, you'd probably want to use the credits to buy music you've already listened to and know you like and want to keep. Now, you have to go to marketplace, search, and buy.

Here, here on the Canada comment...an already frustrating situation just got even worse yesterday.

Ok...oh well I'm gonna get a Zune Pass next week  ^_^

If I download 10 tracks each month and then lose the drive where these tracks are stored, if I don't have a backup, can I go back and download the tracks again?

You guys are getting wicked good press from Brian Lam @ Gizmodo, etc... and well-deserved, too.

gizmodo.com/.../how-i-plan-to-taste-music

If he's getting Parallels just to run Zune, maybe it's a tip-off that you're missing a small but very influential chunk of the potential market by not supporting Mac.

But anyway... thanks for the FAQ. :)

When I browse the marketplace on my 8G Zune, it doesn't show the MP3 logo at any point. Is there a way to see if the song/album is MP3 or DRM restricted? I will never buy a DRM track.

I question whether they're actually working on getting the Marketplace to Canada. Something should have been announced by now. It's a serious setback for Zune in Canada. Open the damn shop even if the selection is limited, I say.

quick question about the zune pass in general... is it possible to sync the marketplace tracks (the unlimted access ones) to the zune?? or will those only play in the software??

How are the DRM-free tracks noted?  I've been looking around the Marketplace, but only find a handful of tracks/albums with the "MP3" designation; much less than the promised 90%.  I don't want to waste my 10 downloads on DRM'd tracks.  How can I be sure to get DRM-free tracks?

CycleAnarchy:

You can definitely sync the marketplace tracks!   That's the beauty of the zune pass!

I had this same idea for a hybrid own/lease music structure. Maybe I should work for Microsoft..... :P

Has anyone used the "10 track purchase" from the actual Zune Device via WiFi?

Yes, please bring the Zune Marketplace and Zune Pass to Canada!!!

I have a question, but am new to all this Zune Pass/iTunes stuff.

Do the "10 tracks" work like Xbox Marketplace downloads (my account logs what I've already downloaded an can redownload at a later time), as in... say I have 30 of these songs after three months and say my hard drive has to be wipped for whatever reason and none of the data can be retained, can I still go back to the Zune Marketplace and get those songs back as "free"? Or can I reinstate my previously downloaded collection from the Zune Marketplace?

Thank you kindly.

This is pretty much the best thing since the Spring update last year. Way to go guys - you just made me even happier to be a Zune owner.

International access and possibility to fully use the marketplace, THAT is something I am desperately waiting for!

Seriously, you guys are killing it right now.  The Zune is so mind-bogglingly good with 3.0 software + Zune Pass, and now you're giving us 10 free tracks a month?  

Wow.  Amazing.  I love it.  You keep doing what you're doing and I'll keep buying devices and giving you $15/month.  You'd have to pry my Zune + Pass out of my cold dead hands, that's how much I love it.

Now could some of the Zune team work on Windows 7?  Bring some of that Zune magic to Windows again so I can stop booting into Ubuntu.

Devin

You can re-download up to 4 times, but if the label pulls the content from Marketplace, it's gone forever.  So, backup your song files or burn it audio CD.  Treat it like any files you care about.

On the surface this seems like a great deal, but I checked around the marketplace and I was hard pressed to find popular songs that came in the MP3 format. It seems like the only big record companies that have MP3 files on the Zune marketplace are Universal and Time Warner. Sony and Columbia don't seem to have MP3s. I wish there were an advanced search feature in the Zune software so it were easier to locate MP3-only music. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to download WMA files even if they don't have DRM - MP3 is still the way to go if you want to be totally compatible with many more devices.

A suggestion:

Allow the 10 credits to be used for TV shows and music videos as well. Obviously their respective costs are different so set it up like a music video uses 3 song credits or whatever. If that happens that would be even more amazing than this new feature already is!!

Back in September of this year Microsoft shipped the Zune 3.0 release in their annual counter to Apple’s unveiling of new iPods. The expectation was that that was it for the holiday season, but last week Microsoft rolled out a bundle of Zune surp

I have a question about the Zune Freebies. I just signed up for the zune pass and I realize that the zune freebies now count as 1 of my monthly 10 credits? If this is so I am very disapointed because there are several freebies a month that would count toward my 10. Can you make some clearification on this

Thank you

Can i add another account and still pay 15$ a month?

Zune released in Canada on June 23, 2008 - still no Zune Pass - still no Marketplace - still no DJ's - still no news.  I'm glad that the Marketplace is improving for the the customers that MS is concerned about.  Does anyone at MS care about the Canadians that bought a Zune?  So very sad... To any Canadians thinking about purchacing a Zune based on Marketplace, Zune Pass or Social... don't do it.  It's not available and there is stony silence from MS regarding when or if it will ever be available in Canada.

I am begging MS to tell us what is going on with online services in Canada, just a simple update! Love the hardware but want the rest...

I have the 1-month Zune pass, paid monthly. It seems that I don't get the 10 free downloads per month, as they don't appear on my Account - Summary page. Zune Pass - 1 Month with 0 Song Credits appears with an option to take a 3 month subscription. Is this the rule?

Thanks for the info.

Can you still play songs if you don't renew your Zune Pass? I have the 14 day unlimited free download with my new 120GB. I have been reading mixed reviews on the actual deal and how many songs and videos are availabl. Anyone got the real?

Zune MVP Harvey Chute has published a great FAQ guide on the new Zune Pass subscription model. The new

I love how the credits I paid for are mysteriously gone at the end of each month.  I had to call support and have a tech in Pakistan guide me to something like page 30 of the terms of use and there it was, hidden in paragraph 14.2.whatever.

If the things I buy (and yes, I BOUGHT these credits) are going to vanish, that's a pretty important thing.  Probably the most important thing.  It should be included in every description of the Zune pass, or at least the one you read when you decide whether or not to purchase it.  Zune sends me stupid emails about "power listener" badges but not "hey those song credits you paid for are going to expire tomorrow"??? That's just plain greedy; you lost a discontent and vociferous customer