Microsoft finally calls Zune out

Microsoft has officially retired all Zune services – which might come as a surprise to those who thought it had already been confined to the scrapheap of history.

The Zune-related services included the Zune Music Pass subscription program and the Zune marketplace for buying MP3s.

The Zune MP3 player was introduced in November of 2006 to great fanfare. It had a small but fanatical following. One user famously got a Zune tattoo and tried to change his name to Microsoft Zune.

But by 2011 it was forced to stop manufacturing the player due to its inability to pull the mass audience away from Apple’s iPods.

Microsoft shifted focus to its Groove music player but ensured that Zune tragics could still access its digital subscription service to stream or download for a flat fee.

A statement from the company advised, “You will no longer be able to stream or download content to your device from the Zune music service. However, Zune devices will still function as music players and any MP3 content that you own on the Zune device will remain there.”

Existing Zune Music Pass subscribers, as well as Xbox Music accounts, will be converted over to the similar three year old Groove Music Pass service and its catalogue of over 38 million tracks.

Annual and three-month subscribers have the option to cancel the service and get pro-rated refunds.

Microsoft has long moved on from Zune, and probably sees it as a period in its company history that it doesn’t want to be reminded of.