DRM on Previously Purchased Content from Zune Marketplace

I've already discussed this issue with Xbox Support. They've escalated it, and I'm supposed to hear back from senior support staff. But it's been three or four days now, and still, nothing. So I thought I'd toss this issue out to the forums here, in the
hopes that someone here might have some ideas.

My issue is this. I've been a user of the Zune platform since 2007, and the Zune Pass since 2008. I purchased music files from that time, back before music purchases were standardized as DRM-free mp3's. At that time, what you purchased were WMA files that
still contained DRM, but would be recognized by the Zune software as yours as long as you were logged in. If you right-clicked "properties," you'd see that yes, they had DRM, but they had a "permanent license," good for syncing or unlimited burning. For all
intents and purposes, they were indistinguishable from mp3's for me. Until this last week.

I recently had to reinstall the Zune 4.8 software on my Windows 7 PC, and to deal with some unrelated issues on my Zune 120 device, I wiped it and its firmware clean, reinstalling it all. Generally, the process went smoothly - aside from the Zune 4.8 software
now acting sluggishly, even with the graphics dialed back to minimum. So yes, that made everything take much longer, but my Zune 120 hasn't run this well in ages.

So what's the problem? Well, now many of my purchased WMA files now claim that I'm not the authorized user. On one EP of 7 songs, 4 of them will still play and sync just fine, properly recognizing me as the user with a permanent license. But the other 3 refuse
to play or sync on DRM grounds. Content from at least one other album and one other single likewise will not work. I suspect that part of the problem may be that this is all content that no longer exists in the Zune Marketplace. In the case of the EP, it is
still available, but it's been reissued by a different record label. The other content is no longer available in the Zune Marketplace at all. (In one case, the album is available from other e-retailers, like Amazon and iTunes, but not Zune Marketplace or Xbox
Music streaming. In the other case, no digital providers offer the track at all - it's "out of print." So as a technical issue - I don't know if this is how DRM worked, but it may be that it simply has no way of "confirming" ownership.) So I could, hypothetically,
just repurchase some of this content - the 3 songs from the EP from Zune/Xbox or eMusic, the album from Amazon. The single... well, I think piracy may be the only source. (Though if I've actually previously purchased that content, is it really piracy?) But
the idea of repurchasing content really rankles me - just on principle. I'm hoping there's some way I can avoid that, and just get the DRM to work properly. Any ideas here?

And if it matters: the content in question is:

1. Dave Gahan, "I Need You (Ladytron Detoxxmix)." This is the one that seems to be "out of print" everywhere.

2. Dean & Britta, the Variations EP. This is the EP with 4 songs that still work, 3 which don't, and was reissued by a different record label, still available from Zune/Xbox under that new label. Interestingly, the entry on Xbox Music streaming says that the
copyright holders have asked that this EP not be made available for streaming.

3. Rob Dickinson, Fresh Wine for the Horses. This is the album that is available from Amazon & iTunes, but not Zune/Xbox.

:)

 

How to redownload purchased music?

Unfortunately I live in a region (Sweden) where Zune Music marketplace was unavailable which means the Zune client doesn't show the Music marketplace or the option to restore previously purchased Music. So I guess I'm out of luck for the time being...

 

Question: Will we still be able to play the Zune on Xbox One?

OP: Zune software? Zune hardware? Media purchased from the Zune marketplace?

 

Sorry to hear it. However, this seems to be a situation that only phone support can deal with. If you don't hear from them today then give them a call again to ask about it.

 

Onyx62is: It took a while for the escalation team to get back to me. But as I suspected, there was absolutely nothing that they could do. I had hoped some technical fix, like the Zune Media Reset Tool, might have been available for this kind of thing. But
no. So the escalation team basically decided to compensate me with Xbox credits. Which is great in one respect: they offered more than the tracks were actually worth monetarily speaking. But this created a new conundrum: how on earth am I supposed to redeem
these credits? Yes, some of the songs I'll have to purchase from a competitor; but I'm not talking about that problem. Rather, how am I supposed to purchase new music with these credits? The Zune software doesn't recognize this credit, so I can't purchase
anything new from the Zune Marketplace with it. The Xbox Music site on the internet doesn't appear to offer any means of purchasing music there; it's not like Amazon or Google Play. I have the Xbox Music app on my Nook tablet, so I'll try things out there.
(Yes, I researched this question already, but the only places where I saw instructions on how to purchase music concerned phones and the Xbox Music app on Windows 8.) We'll see how it goes. So it's weird. I'm grateful that the escalation team wanted to make
things right. But it would've made a lot more sense for them to simply increase my monthly allotment of Zune Pass credits, because there's certainly no obvious way that I can take advantage of what they offered me.

 

You have both helped and disheartened me. I had to replace a hard drive and now I get the DRM problem on almost all of my music. I logged on to the Xbox music and many (not all) of my songs will play there. If it is not a piece in their catalog it does
not play. As long as I don't plug my Zune into the computer, the music still plays there, but that's not much use of an MP3 player is it? And I can find NOTHING that tells me how to get the music back off the Xbox music collection to the Zune. I guess this
means I move over to the IPod. Sorry Zune, I love you but...

 

Hey there Baereaero!

Sincerely sorry to hear about the frustration. Since this is an older thread, I strongly suggest contacting our phone support agents through our Contact Us page. Please feel free to post a new thread if you need assistance in the future.



Thanks!