Owning music and being able to listen to it even without internet is just common sense to me. Especially in my country where we don't have electricity for at least 10 hours a day.
@@spencereevesSamsung has the patent on the process for mass manufacturing OLEDs. It’s likely a Samsung display (could be wrong)! So s/o Microsoft for choosing that so early in the game
@@spencereeves Microsoft was kinda ahead of its time with tech usually. they just always go unnoticed because the mainstream market wouldn't buy some microsoft branded things in those days except for windows 7 and xbox 360.
Yup, and I got one because I wanted it so bad, back then. Unfortunately, mine stopped working just past the warranty period, so I traded it in at Best Buy for somehow more than what it would sell for working on eBay?! Little did I know, I wouldn’t see or use an OLED display again for literally ten years when I finally got an iPhone XS, and an LG OLED tv. When the Zune was working, it felt like a luxury, super lightweight and modern UI.
I barely started streaming like 2 years ago. Offline is always better. Went hiking with my friends and I was the only one with music because there was no signal. I plan on making a 1tb Ipod because phone storage is ehhh
@@crown_resident I stream a lot but I download and store the music I truly care for or have passion for directly in my phone and computer. Get the best of both worlds!
Experiencing this device should be a part of school-syllabus for every UI design student. This device did "flat" UI when android and ios were still doing skeumorphism. After the Zune HD, windows moved to incorporate the flat Metro UI, and android moved to Holo UI (also flat), apple moved to flat icons.
Absolutely agree. Zune/Metro UI is a masterclass of flat design for the time, complete with perfectly fluid animations and visual cues that gave users a good sense of where they are in the menus. Definitely a pioneering design era for Microsoft and it put them way ahead of the curve compared to the other design systems of the time!
Sony NW-A55 user here, offline music is great. No streaming app jank, e.g. it thinking you're offline or playing on another device when you're not. Tiny device, fits in any pocket imaginable. Charge the thing max once per week. Wired headphones for better sound quality and no Bluetooth issues. 1 TB SD card stores more FLAC than I could ever need to carry with me.
Ha ha, A45 user here. The A55 was the last non-android walkman family Sony released, IIRC. I prefer that to the generic "cellphone without SIM card" user interface. Still miss the built-in SenseMe analysis older devices had though.
a105 user here just so I can use audible. I was seriously debating on getting the a45/a55 for the longest while for those very reasons. But my main listening is audiobooks and removing the DRM from audible is a pain.
The big problem with modern streaming and music listening is that the newer the device and the newer the technology - the worse it sounds. I made an experiment and tried all of my old smartphones going back 15 years with the same pair of headphones and the best sounding were around 2010-2012. That is also true with the players. They are a dedicated device that had only one purpose - sound good. I myself am rocking an old 4gb Sony Walkman and I dont want to go back to the streaming bull that is the current world.
I agree, I think a lot of companies lost the will to push better quality sound from their devices the same time they took out the 3.5mm ports. Dedicated music players will always have the better sound quality, and I definitely could tell the difference with this Zune and my iPhone!
That's one reason I tried to pick phones based off their audio ability. I used HTC stuff until they went under because they still had some focus on audio quality. Probably not the same as a dedicated music device, but better than "sound comes out here, what more do you want?" from other places. Have a Sony Xperia now that at least has enough power to drive headphones from the 3.5 jack.
Not gonna lie, my favorite media player I've ever owned was my brown Zune 30. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of streaming music but man having that music that you own in the palm of your hand, not getting any other distractions from the device, it was nice.
If you use Android and don't want to buy another device or can't get your hands on one, just use your phone as an offline music device. Plenty of music players out there (on Android at least) that work great. Just copy whatever music you want onto your phone and off you go.
Well the goal with trying to use this Zune was to reduce my dependency on my phone/ try to use it less and be more mindful about when I do. Otherwise I would just put all the music onto my phone (and it would be wayyyy more convenient!)
@spencereeves the only problem I have with that, is the fact that a separate mp3 player can only hold maybe 20,000 songs max. I listen to over 50,000. The more songs you try to put on even a high quality mp3 player, the more lag you experience. Even the most expensive players don't have the ram to keep up with that many songs like phones can.
I've consistently used my 160GB 7th gen iPod since the day I bought it used on eBay (to save some money). I added about a thousand CD albums onto it and I have a few movies on it as well. It's my go-to device for flights, train trips, or for enjoying listening to music in the dark at night to focus on every nuance of the songs or tunes being played. I still don't have a smartphone after all these years and for my purposes, I have a new flip-phone which I enjoy keeping switched off 98% of the time because I hate how invasive smartphones have become in our societies, so it's fun to use my iPod for music, my Canon digital SLR camera for photos and video, and my flip-phone for the occasional phone call I need to make (I've always hated text messaging as well as the beeps, chirps, and water droplet sounds of "smartphones" that have in many ways, made the world dumber). To each his or her own, of course, but there is something to be said for using an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune to enjoy music without other technological distractions getting in the way. :)
That thing is beautiful, it's still one of my favourite designs of any product, I feel barely any phones can get close to being so perfect, I wish my S24 Ultra leaned a bit towards the Zune HDs Aesthetics, it's so functional futuristic
The Zune was basically dead from the start, with the Zune 30 being worse in every way than the 5th gen iPod. It had clunky navigation due to being a lazy rebadge of a Toshiba MP3 player, worse build quality, a worse looking display, was thicker, and thus less portable, than the 80GB 5th gen iPod, making the 30GB 5th gen feel like an iPod nano in comparison to the Zune 30, and had worse battery life in audio playback compared to the 30GB 5th gen iPod. In addition, the PC software wasn't much better, with it being a reskin of Windows Media Player, and you couldn't easily determine how much songs or videos from the Zune Marketplace costed because of it requiring you to buy points that you'd then buy music or videos with. While the Zune 80 and 120 fixed most of the hardware issues with the Zune 30, excluding the DPI and battery life gap, the damage was not only already done but made worse from Microsoft being late to the game. Microsoft also missed the mark completely with determining why the iPod touch was so popular, making a Zune with a touchscreen instead of making a WiFi only Windows Phone with a focus on music.
Yes it is, for me. I just use my old phones as dedicated music players. I still buy alot of cds. I just rip them to my ssd with my external dvd drive and then convert the wav files to flac and transfer them to my phone music player. I also edit the tag of the song and put whatever album art i want on the song itself. It's the best way to listen to my own music. For me streaming is only good for new music discovery only.
Heya, fellow music player user here. I started with a E460 series Walkman back in 2012 and upgraded to the A50 series in 2019 for the MicroSD slot. Still using it to this day and it's been great! The one absolute thing that pushed me to get a dedicated music player is the convenience of having physical buttons that I can use without looking at the screen. Although I honestly dread the day when the battery finally can't hold it's charge and I'll eventually have to upgrade to the newer Walkman range that runs on Android.
Hopped back to my Creative Zen Vision M - swapped out the 'spinning rust' for flash storage, it is a thing of beauty - Served me well in 2015 still going strong now! (apart from the scroll)
@@spencereeves If it still works and whilst there is still community and resources around fixing and or upgrading hopefully these now 'Retro' (Hard for me to call it retro) devices alive.
@@chrisad1177 If you're looking to do the flash upgrade (Which is dead simple) look for one with the ZIF connector and uses SD cards, I thought i'd be smart and just use a flash disc which was like an IDE connection and the Zen would crash out after transferring one song - So absolutely the SD card one! The device is now lighter, battery lasts longer and there's no HDD noise!
I had one of these too! I'm modding an iPod 5.5 ATM instead of restoring it, mostly just because modding is so well supported for iPods compared to everything else
Shoutout to the Zune HD, birthday present from my grandparents wayyy back in highschool. I cherished that thing and used it for many years. So many people slept on/ridiculed it. I recently caught myself going back to my old ways with MP3 players on the go and USBs loaded up with music playing in my car.
Before I upgraded to an iPhone SE, my old iPhone 8 battery was dying in 2 hours so I picked up a cheap Sony mp3 player and just downloaded stuff off youtube and put it on there. It's nice to not be given the same songs over and over again by an algorithm.
At the beginning of the last year I switched from paid streaming to a personal music collection + UA-cam and I love it. I believe that streaming is great for people who wants to expand their taste in music but at the moment I prioritize other hobbies and passions over developing my musical taste so I was paying 10,99€/month to continuously rent the same music with minimal variation and little of that was benefiting the artist. Now I spend the same or little less to buy music from Bandcamp/iTunes/CDs but at least more of that goes to the artist and instead of having nothing to show for the money I spent I own music that often I'll keep listening for years (I still regularly listen to the first CD I bought, back in 2019), I admit that that sometimes I "sin" by using UA-cam, mostly for stuff unavailable for purchase (i.e. medleys or anime OSTs) but sometimes for lazyness too (but I was doing that even when I was an Apple Music Subscriber).
Exactly, streaming has maximum usefulness for people who want to expand their music taste. I love hearing new artists and am always exploring new music, so it is a good fit for me (alongside supporting my favorite artists with their physical releases). But not everyone uses services to the best potential
Never used streaming services. I just sync songs that I have in my laptop to my phone. I only listen to songs that I want and I usually have it already. My music player is the first gen SE which means I can still use it with airpods and wired headphones.
I think it’s better to just get an old iPhone, for example, iPhone SE or 6S and just install two application Apple Music and Spotify and enable high-quality audio in the settings, and use your AirPods for lossless sound, and if you want to use wired earphones like IEM, just get a DAC connector and connect your wired earphones. I think it’s the best way to have a separate audio player.
My favorite music player that I had that isn't solid state was a JVC 3 head cassette deck. You can hear how the tape will sound as it's being recorded. My favorite solid state player was a Samsung Clip Zip MP3 player running Rockbox firmware. 32 gigabytes of storage space is huge because it could also play MOD and SID files so it was effectively a 128 gigabyte machine (I spent from 1998 to 2006 pretty much just listening to 4 channel Amiga MOD music alone)
Funny thing is, thats how i use streaming services. I play an album or a playlist i have created, i turn off the random songs insertion, and the "continue playing similar songs after the playlist is finished" or whatever the option was.
Ironically, the Zune HD was my introduction to streaming music. Zune Pass let you listen to any music from the store for a monthly fee years before Spotify launched in North America.
I completely forgot they had that service, they really were ahead of the curve with streaming too! Plus you actually got to actually keep 10 of the songs per month
Cool review and video. Back then I really wanted this Zune but yep, the price was not something I could afford. It seemed like the best though and not having the need to use apple's itunes was definitely a plus. Back in 2005 or before that time if i remember right, i discovered slacker radio devices. I used those for many years until I got the last generation Ipod from my girlfriend who is now my wife. Slacker was great though, downloadable playlists, channels and songs streamed before streaming was a thing, and I was able to plug it into my car as well. Just a small Tamagotchi sized player with decent graphics as well on the screen. Wow, this brought back a lot of memories. Thanks!
there is a massive modding scene around ipods. if you wanna use wireless headphones with them, you can. same with playing flac files or usb c, expanded battery, hard drive, and a few other things. i had a zune back in the day but if i was gonna pick up a dap today, it would probably be an ipod
I was highly considering getting an iPod to mod before I got a chance to try the Zune! I still might in the future since there is so much you can customize with Rockbox
Man, where were you guys in 2009? I wish more people bought the Zune HD back in the day. The interface is very nice and snappy, the OLED screen is crystal clear (even though it's lo-res by today's standards) and it's tiny! My only regret was not getting the 64 GB version.
I wish I could have tried it during it’s prime! Was too young at the time to have the buying power for one, but it was so cool to go back and experience how great the Zune was for the time
POV me watching this with my Sony HiMD Minidisc player with all my music encoded in ATRAC 3 Plus oh and I still have and use my Zune silicone carpet that came with it. I Use it to prevent scratches on my phone at home.
It is better because: -Plays instantly, does not load. Great if you live in the Philippines where the data network is awful all the time. -All music being played is something you know and are familiar. If you're not into listening to new songs. -Having them can be free of charge ;) -You can easily use them to add to your videos when editing. -Offline music means you're not constantly downloading content on the internet which reduces battery consumption. -You will never stumble upon a music that has its lyrics censored or replaced.
You can just download offline all your spotify albums which you want to listen to, and then turn on offline mode. And boom, you have your own private, “just what’s needed” selection of artists, albums and songs.
I've never used a streaming service for music, I refuse to listen to those ads or use up my limited internet data on my phone for that. I download full albums onto my computer and burn them to disc to listen to in my car. I also throw them on my phone for if I need to use that. It's so much better than streaming.
I have been using my original 5th gen iPod Touch as my main music player since about 2019. No one can stop or interrupt my music, not even google maps. Im not getting upcharged for the same lacking service. No one can copyright strike anything in any of my playlists. I can use my wired IEMs, or plug it into my car. Never going back.
This isnt an argument for apple music's ui (it has some issues that i find youtube music solves very well) i just appreciate i can download cd quality music and use my watch in conjunction as a pseudo ipod shuffle
I had windows plays for sure devices then got a Zune and it was so frustrating you couldn't just drag and drop your files like you could on the plays for sure. I had zunepass back when it was amazing!
Easy use case for me, airplanes. I know a lot of planes have Wi-Fi now, but I'm not going to pay for low quality Wi-Fi just to play my music. I just download what i want locally to my phone and treat it like an mp3 player.
Yep, I always have a big downloaded playlist for when I travel for that reason! Super quick and easy way to get as much music saved up as I could need on the go. The Spotify app doesn’t work great when in offline mode though
If you were using Apple CarPlay it means that you have an iPhone. iPod is still built inside iPhone. You could have transfer those same songs from your Zune to your iPhone and used CarPlay. Easily just logging around one device instead of two.
I’m iPod user since 2004 and use one different everyday on my daily tasks, from the classic 6g to the touch 3g at home, to the nano 6g for training or the shuffle going outside, back on the 2006 I received the first zune for Christmas and I simply loved it the design, the color and the features were superior at time than my latest iPod (classic 5g aka iPod video), unfortunately I never can use it despite how much I tried install the software, even tried on many PCs I could access the ones at home, at my grandparents house and school one, at least 7 of them can’t handle the software installation from the incluidos cd installer and also downloaded from their web page, the 8th pc installed the downloaded version without problems but never could sync a single song with the zune, so it got back to its box and years later I sold it to buy a new 6g iPod, i wish I really could have use it cause it was a really cool device
Damn, this makes me miss my Zune HD! I might have to go on eBay and buy another one now. It was how I listened to music at the gym. I still have an older 80gb Zune, but don't use it that much anymore 'cause the battery doesn't hold a charge for long. Other than that it still works fine, and I still have the software on my laptop.
I wanted a red Zune SO BAD when I was a teenager. I liked them so much more than iPods. I ended up getting a SanDisk though lol >.> I forgot about the Zune HD model. f
The lack of immediacy you bring up towards the end is, honestly, kind of "the point" for a lot of people who are switching away from Streaming. The act of having to rip a CD, or buy an album from Bandcamp, and going to a computer specifically to transfer it over to your device is a bit of a hassle, but it adds a degree of curation to your experience, and makes you think "is this album or this playlist worth the hassle? Or the cost?" And if it isn't, perhaps you don't like it as much as you thought you did. Cutting off streaming is as much about cutting yourself off from algorithms and dark patterns as it is about taking stock of your own relationship with the art you enjoy.
I bought the original Zune 30gb model shortly after they first came out (got the brown color because nobody bought them so they dropped the price drastically). I used it a lot and really liked the software and UI! It sounded great and came with good headphones. I am thinking of replacing the battery and getting solid state storage for it so i can use it again.
I hate subscriptions and like owning media, so Spotify is a non starter for me. I use a third party music player on my android phone because the new default player is absolutely terrible. I usually listen to music while doing other things and rarely listen to music on its own without anything else going on unless I'm driving. When I'm driving I need to keep my phone connected over bluetooth to the vehicle speakers in case I have to take a work call, so I play music, podcasts, and audio books, with my phone anyway, so having a separate device for music isn't worth it for me, but I do like seeing other people's set ups.
I used to constantly buy the CDs of the music I love, then made the horrible mistake of buying into music streaming, which now means that with me trying to go back to actually owning the media I engage with is a very expensive prospect.
Yeah I had a bunch of physical media I ditched when streaming started gaining momentum too. But it has been fun to slowly build a more curated personal library through the past few years (but yes very expensive!)
@@spencereeves At times it feels genuinely harder to just purchase things these days, especially physical media. I am enjoying the process of deciding what music I really enjoy before making that purchase, I'm picking up a dedicated music player soon so I can make the most of my moondrop IEMs.
Been using it for years till this day. Hard part is probably just getting album info but the Reddit group has a lot of helpful info for everything. You can use a Bluetooth transmitter to use it with your car too even though it can be annoying 😅
The lack of external volume buttons was why I returned mine and got an iPod touch instead. I really wanted to like it but the extra steps to control something so essential as volume was a deal breaker for me.
Honestly, it's not even the algorithm that bothers me, but rather the lack of actually owning a song. I'll give you an example: at the beginning of the year I bought Kanye's digital album (Vultures 1) and in less than 24 hours Two songs were simply deleted from the album, luckily I had the files I bought on my computer, but those who didn't simply couldn't hear those two songs. That's why I'm looking for an iPod in addition to buying CDs and digital albums, that way I'll actually own the songs and no one will be able to modify or delete them.
That is definitely become a growing problem in the past few years. Lots of newer songs are being censored, edited, or completely removed from streaming services lately and owning the songs in digital or physical versions might be the only way to preserve them in the future!
I recently got a refurbished iPod and I absolutely love it. I do want to get a Zune HD for the display as well! It’s gorgeous, but so rare. Does anyone know of a modern equivalent?
The answer is obviously yes imo. When you pay for services like Spotify you don't own the music and it can be removed from the service. Furthermore, paying for Spotify barely brings much to the artists. I've heard from several artists over the years that the money they make from Spotify doesn't even come close to the cost of recording their music. So they make most of their money from selling the music directly. One mistake I see a lot of youtubers make is making it seem like the only alternative is to use a dedicated music player (often one of the more expensive name brands) and go through the experience of ripping their cds one my one and putting it on there. That just isn't the case. Music can be bought in lossless digital formats like FLAC and DRM in sold music isn't very common now a days and hasn't been for year. Computers, and smartphones all have access to some music playing app. And these apps can usually play most if not all common music formats. What I do is I have all of my music on my computer (and I have backups as well if needed), I try to keep my music in wavpack format because it has a hybrid lossy mode that turns each song into two files, a lossy file that can be played on it's own, and a lossess correction file that makes the song lossless when in the same folder. Since I have less space on my phone (I have about 160GB of available space shared between the phone and it's micro sd card), I just copy the lossy files to the phone (their quality is set to about the same as a high end mp3). I use foobar2000 on both devices. I only had to copy the files once, File transfer just uses the standard file explorer when I connect the phone to my PC. This set up works for me because I only use the phone for music and the occasional text. I don't spend a lot of time looking at my phone and because I only focused on the necessities I have a phone plan that is cheap, but also quite limited in bandwidth. Upgrading to one with unlimited internet would multiply my monthly cost for it and to me it's just not worth it to stream music I already have. a cheap 30-40 dollar mp3 player. The sound on it is pretty good but it seems to not play nice with micro sd cards above 16GB, which can still hold quite a bit of music as long as it isn't lossless. It also can't play as many formats, so I just converted some songs to mp3 for it. If you don't want to use your (or any) phone, there are quite a few music players that can be bought from that price to any price point. You don't need to buy a Zune or an Ipod to get away from streaming services or even just to get away from your phone in genera. DACs tend to run Android (some can run Rockbox if you want to), which means the experience is similar to a phone and putting music on them doesn't usually require any sort of extra computer software. They also tend to have bluetooth if you want to use wireless headphones. Dacs also get more and more features targeted towards audiophiles the more expensive you go, like being able to drive higher quality headpones, support for hi-res audio.But if you don't care about that, there are options that are much cheaper that are affordable.
Honestly, the Zune just sounds better. Plus, you don't have to be constantly connected to a phone signal to hear your music. The interface is just more intuitive and easy to use than Spotify to me.
I am looking for an MP3 player to play audio books, Quran recitation, audio lectures, and anything audio so I can use my phone less. I bought Kindle to read book so I don't reach to mobile, I bought apple watch so I don't reach for mobile, yet I reach for my phone. So I seriously need to make my life simpler buying alternative to my phone so phone will only be used when I am outside or just when I need to call or watch high quality videos. That way I will use less electricity since those mp3 players gonna consume lot less power comparatively and my phone's charge will last forever, helping the community overall imagine if everyone does that!
Where I live we still use "offline" music, we just download songs in our phones so... yeah? It's not because of the ads is just because it's the normal thing to do still. Sometimes you don't have internet and most of us just don't wanna pay for listening so we just use UA-cam I myself don't have any music offline anymore, the easy access to internet made unnecessary for me but it drains my phone battery faster. I just use UA-cam
Or buying an old sony walkman cellphone adding extra storage to it and having wired headphones with it, still has a very decent music quality in it in my opinion 👍
Well i'm still using Offline music. Obviously i'm pirating them until it reach to 15 Gb for song (mp3, M4A, mp4). With over 13.000 song in my phones. When you trying to play all of the song it need at least 4 or 5 days just to finished to play all of the songs.
I feel like a good compromise is hosting your own music server (e.g. jellyfin), the original client kinda sucks for listening to music but you can use third party ones like finamp
Owning music and being able to listen to it even without internet is just common sense to me. Especially in my country where we don't have electricity for at least 10 hours a day.
Which country?
@@keshavbhanu5788i am thinking either Lancaster or a war torn/flat refusal to develop country that Donald Trump's 24 and me DNA test kit covers...
Venezuela? or Ecuador?
OLED in 2009??? For a music player??? Genuinely made my jaw drop, that's actually insane.
Yeah I was so surprised when I first read the release specs, I had no idea Microsoft was so ahead with display tech back then!
@@spencereevesSamsung has the patent on the process for mass manufacturing OLEDs. It’s likely a Samsung display (could be wrong)! So s/o Microsoft for choosing that so early in the game
@@spencereeves Microsoft was kinda ahead of its time with tech usually. they just always go unnoticed because the mainstream market wouldn't buy some microsoft branded things in those days except for windows 7 and xbox 360.
@@saucesejiTrue. The stigma of Microsoft products back then in 2000s was uncool, "only for office drones"
Yup, and I got one because I wanted it so bad, back then. Unfortunately, mine stopped working just past the warranty period, so I traded it in at Best Buy for somehow more than what it would sell for working on eBay?! Little did I know, I wouldn’t see or use an OLED display again for literally ten years when I finally got an iPhone XS, and an LG OLED tv. When the Zune was working, it felt like a luxury, super lightweight and modern UI.
Those of us who were skeptical of streaming services in the first place welcome you back.
I have never streamed music
@@ScorpionKing-Tales 👍🏾
I barely started streaming like 2 years ago. Offline is always better. Went hiking with my friends and I was the only one with music because there was no signal. I plan on making a 1tb Ipod because phone storage is ehhh
@@crown_resident I stream a lot but I download and store the music I truly care for or have passion for directly in my phone and computer. Get the best of both worlds!
Experiencing this device should be a part of school-syllabus for every UI design student.
This device did "flat" UI when android and ios were still doing skeumorphism. After the Zune HD, windows moved to incorporate the flat Metro UI, and android moved to Holo UI (also flat), apple moved to flat icons.
Absolutely agree. Zune/Metro UI is a masterclass of flat design for the time, complete with perfectly fluid animations and visual cues that gave users a good sense of where they are in the menus. Definitely a pioneering design era for Microsoft and it put them way ahead of the curve compared to the other design systems of the time!
@@spencereevesSuch a shame that UI design was dumped.
It made me love my Zune and Windows Phone.
Flat UI on the Nokia Lumia which is the windows one I believe was horrible though 😂
@@goodboiadvsp3297 Looks and works the same as Zune
Sony NW-A55 user here, offline music is great. No streaming app jank, e.g. it thinking you're offline or playing on another device when you're not. Tiny device, fits in any pocket imaginable. Charge the thing max once per week. Wired headphones for better sound quality and no Bluetooth issues. 1 TB SD card stores more FLAC than I could ever need to carry with me.
A55 is the goat
Love my A55 but my heart will always be with the ibasso DX50. Replaceable battery and rockbox ftw
A45 Here, I love my walkman and I had Spotify, tidal and Apple Music available but I prefer to listen to the A45
Ha ha, A45 user here. The A55 was the last non-android walkman family Sony released, IIRC. I prefer that to the generic "cellphone without SIM card" user interface. Still miss the built-in SenseMe analysis older devices had though.
a105 user here just so I can use audible. I was seriously debating on getting the a45/a55 for the longest while for those very reasons. But my main listening is audiobooks and removing the DRM from audible is a pain.
The Zune was way ahead of its time. I never used the HD, but I loved my original brick one.
My dad used a big brown brick Zune too and probably still does. Even that one still looks modern! Loved that thing (and playing Hexic on it!)
The big problem with modern streaming and music listening is that the newer the device and the newer the technology - the worse it sounds. I made an experiment and tried all of my old smartphones going back 15 years with the same pair of headphones and the best sounding were around 2010-2012. That is also true with the players. They are a dedicated device that had only one purpose - sound good. I myself am rocking an old 4gb Sony Walkman and I dont want to go back to the streaming bull that is the current world.
I agree, I think a lot of companies lost the will to push better quality sound from their devices the same time they took out the 3.5mm ports. Dedicated music players will always have the better sound quality, and I definitely could tell the difference with this Zune and my iPhone!
Exactly! Streaming compresses audio too much. Wired headphones and local content is the way to go.
That's one reason I tried to pick phones based off their audio ability. I used HTC stuff until they went under because they still had some focus on audio quality. Probably not the same as a dedicated music device, but better than "sound comes out here, what more do you want?" from other places. Have a Sony Xperia now that at least has enough power to drive headphones from the 3.5 jack.
I had the HD as a kid and i LOVED that thing. It was a handmedown because my dad never used it and it was a gift from my mom. Wish i still had it.
Not gonna lie, my favorite media player I've ever owned was my brown Zune 30. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of streaming music but man having that music that you own in the palm of your hand, not getting any other distractions from the device, it was nice.
If you use Android and don't want to buy another device or can't get your hands on one, just use your phone as an offline music device.
Plenty of music players out there (on Android at least) that work great. Just copy whatever music you want onto your phone and off you go.
Well the goal with trying to use this Zune was to reduce my dependency on my phone/ try to use it less and be more mindful about when I do. Otherwise I would just put all the music onto my phone (and it would be wayyyy more convenient!)
@spencereeves the only problem I have with that, is the fact that a separate mp3 player can only hold maybe 20,000 songs max. I listen to over 50,000. The more songs you try to put on even a high quality mp3 player, the more lag you experience. Even the most expensive players don't have the ram to keep up with that many songs like phones can.
@@spencereevesyeah, I have my music ripped to my iPhone and it works with CarPlay
I've consistently used my 160GB 7th gen iPod since the day I bought it used on eBay (to save some money). I added about a thousand CD albums onto it and I have a few movies on it as well. It's my go-to device for flights, train trips, or for enjoying listening to music in the dark at night to focus on every nuance of the songs or tunes being played.
I still don't have a smartphone after all these years and for my purposes, I have a new flip-phone which I enjoy keeping switched off 98% of the time because I hate how invasive smartphones have become in our societies, so it's fun to use my iPod for music, my Canon digital SLR camera for photos and video, and my flip-phone for the occasional phone call I need to make (I've always hated text messaging as well as the beeps, chirps, and water droplet sounds of "smartphones" that have in many ways, made the world dumber).
To each his or her own, of course, but there is something to be said for using an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune to enjoy music without other technological distractions getting in the way. :)
That thing is beautiful, it's still one of my favourite designs of any product, I feel barely any phones can get close to being so perfect, I wish my S24 Ultra leaned a bit towards the Zune HDs Aesthetics, it's so functional futuristic
The closest we ever got was with Windows phones, but even those didn't last long in the market :( I wish we had something like it still!
@@spencereevesyeh the windows phones had some cool designs, very different from the Zune but my favourite was the Nokia N9
The Zune was ahead of it's time. It should have been a lot bigger than it was. It was way better than the ipod.
same with Windows Phone/Lumia
Yall didn’t buy it, that’s why
The Zune was basically dead from the start, with the Zune 30 being worse in every way than the 5th gen iPod. It had clunky navigation due to being a lazy rebadge of a Toshiba MP3 player, worse build quality, a worse looking display, was thicker, and thus less portable, than the 80GB 5th gen iPod, making the 30GB 5th gen feel like an iPod nano in comparison to the Zune 30, and had worse battery life in audio playback compared to the 30GB 5th gen iPod. In addition, the PC software wasn't much better, with it being a reskin of Windows Media Player, and you couldn't easily determine how much songs or videos from the Zune Marketplace costed because of it requiring you to buy points that you'd then buy music or videos with.
While the Zune 80 and 120 fixed most of the hardware issues with the Zune 30, excluding the DPI and battery life gap, the damage was not only already done but made worse from Microsoft being late to the game. Microsoft also missed the mark completely with determining why the iPod touch was so popular, making a Zune with a touchscreen instead of making a WiFi only Windows Phone with a focus on music.
@@ejakaegypt I owned 2. Besides it being a bit chunky, it still feels like modern hardware today.
@@PercyPanleoQuiet sheet
Yes it is, for me. I just use my old phones as dedicated music players. I still buy alot of cds. I just rip them to my ssd with my external dvd drive and then convert the wav files to flac and transfer them to my phone music player. I also edit the tag of the song and put whatever album art i want on the song itself. It's the best way to listen to my own music. For me streaming is only good for new music discovery only.
Heya, fellow music player user here. I started with a E460 series Walkman back in 2012 and upgraded to the A50 series in 2019 for the MicroSD slot. Still using it to this day and it's been great! The one absolute thing that pushed me to get a dedicated music player is the convenience of having physical buttons that I can use without looking at the screen.
Although I honestly dread the day when the battery finally can't hold it's charge and I'll eventually have to upgrade to the newer Walkman range that runs on Android.
Your music taste 🔥🔥🔥
ty :)
I had a Zune HD as a teenager, and it was may favorite device. It honestly still is.
Hopped back to my Creative Zen Vision M - swapped out the 'spinning rust' for flash storage, it is a thing of beauty - Served me well in 2015 still going strong now! (apart from the scroll)
I used to have a Zen Vision M too and I miss it so much. Such a unique iPod alternative with a great screen too. Glad those are being kept around!
@@spencereeves If it still works and whilst there is still community and resources around fixing and or upgrading hopefully these now 'Retro' (Hard for me to call it retro) devices alive.
Loved my Zen Vision M and came across it recently, may need to get it back up and running
@@chrisad1177 If you're looking to do the flash upgrade (Which is dead simple) look for one with the ZIF connector and uses SD cards, I thought i'd be smart and just use a flash disc which was like an IDE connection and the Zen would crash out after transferring one song - So absolutely the SD card one! The device is now lighter, battery lasts longer and there's no HDD noise!
I had one of these too! I'm modding an iPod 5.5 ATM instead of restoring it, mostly just because modding is so well supported for iPods compared to everything else
good video & good music taste, i love this :)
I saw my friend at work with a mp3 I was kinda jealous i wanted one bc it looked so cool
The UI of zune is just ahead of its time. That's why I fell in love with lumia windows os because of it...
I've been using my ipod touch since 2009 and still use it today. I love having all my favorite music in it. 😀
I think the fact that you can sit and not have notifications or distractions is the main thing. Also they usually have better quality
Not being distracted/bothered by notifications is such a freeing experience!
Shoutout to the Zune HD, birthday present from my grandparents wayyy back in highschool. I cherished that thing and used it for many years. So many people slept on/ridiculed it.
I recently caught myself going back to my old ways with MP3 players on the go and USBs loaded up with music playing in my car.
Amazing birthday present, w grandparents!
Before I upgraded to an iPhone SE, my old iPhone 8 battery was dying in 2 hours so I picked up a cheap Sony mp3 player and just downloaded stuff off youtube and put it on there. It's nice to not be given the same songs over and over again by an algorithm.
At the beginning of the last year I switched from paid streaming to a personal music collection + UA-cam and I love it.
I believe that streaming is great for people who wants to expand their taste in music but at the moment I prioritize other hobbies and passions over developing my musical taste so I was paying 10,99€/month to continuously rent the same music with minimal variation and little of that was benefiting the artist.
Now I spend the same or little less to buy music from Bandcamp/iTunes/CDs but at least more of that goes to the artist and instead of having nothing to show for the money I spent I own music that often I'll keep listening for years (I still regularly listen to the first CD I bought, back in 2019), I admit that that sometimes I "sin" by using UA-cam, mostly for stuff unavailable for purchase (i.e. medleys or anime OSTs) but sometimes for lazyness too (but I was doing that even when I was an Apple Music Subscriber).
Exactly, streaming has maximum usefulness for people who want to expand their music taste. I love hearing new artists and am always exploring new music, so it is a good fit for me (alongside supporting my favorite artists with their physical releases). But not everyone uses services to the best potential
I switched back to an old walkman years ago, and I dont regret it
The Zune HD was a dope little player, I love the way it feels in the hands.
Never used streaming services. I just sync songs that I have in my laptop to my phone. I only listen to songs that I want and I usually have it already. My music player is the first gen SE which means I can still use it with airpods and wired headphones.
I think it’s better to just get an old iPhone, for example, iPhone SE or 6S and just install two application Apple Music and Spotify and enable high-quality audio in the settings, and use your AirPods for lossless sound, and if you want to use wired earphones like IEM, just get a DAC connector and connect your wired earphones. I think it’s the best way to have a separate audio player.
I have an old 5S I tried this with a year ago and it was actually a really nice experience. AirPods and Airplay still worked perfectly on it!
My favorite music player that I had that isn't solid state was a JVC 3 head cassette deck. You can hear how the tape will sound as it's being recorded. My favorite solid state player was a Samsung Clip Zip MP3 player running Rockbox firmware. 32 gigabytes of storage space is huge because it could also play MOD and SID files so it was effectively a 128 gigabyte machine (I spent from 1998 to 2006 pretty much just listening to 4 channel Amiga MOD music alone)
subscribed for your music taste alone 👏🔥💖
Funny thing is, thats how i use streaming services. I play an album or a playlist i have created, i turn off the random songs insertion, and the "continue playing similar songs after the playlist is finished" or whatever the option was.
Ironically, the Zune HD was my introduction to streaming music. Zune Pass let you listen to any music from the store for a monthly fee years before Spotify launched in North America.
I completely forgot they had that service, they really were ahead of the curve with streaming too! Plus you actually got to actually keep 10 of the songs per month
Cool review and video. Back then I really wanted this Zune but yep, the price was not something I could afford. It seemed like the best though and not having the need to use apple's itunes was definitely a plus. Back in 2005 or before that time if i remember right, i discovered slacker radio devices. I used those for many years until I got the last generation Ipod from my girlfriend who is now my wife. Slacker was great though, downloadable playlists, channels and songs streamed before streaming was a thing, and I was able to plug it into my car as well. Just a small Tamagotchi sized player with decent graphics as well on the screen. Wow, this brought back a lot of memories. Thanks!
Ive been offline music streaming ever since my mother gifted her old ipod to me from like 2016. Im happy.
YOU LISTEN TO SOPHIE, TO MAGDALENA BAY, TO CAROLINA POLACHECK. TO CHARLIE XCX WOOOOOW LOVE THEY
there is a massive modding scene around ipods. if you wanna use wireless headphones with them, you can. same with playing flac files or usb c, expanded battery, hard drive, and a few other things. i had a zune back in the day but if i was gonna pick up a dap today, it would probably be an ipod
I was highly considering getting an iPod to mod before I got a chance to try the Zune! I still might in the future since there is so much you can customize with Rockbox
Man, where were you guys in 2009? I wish more people bought the Zune HD back in the day. The interface is very nice and snappy, the OLED screen is crystal clear (even though it's lo-res by today's standards) and it's tiny! My only regret was not getting the 64 GB version.
I wish I could have tried it during it’s prime! Was too young at the time to have the buying power for one, but it was so cool to go back and experience how great the Zune was for the time
POV me watching this with my Sony HiMD Minidisc player with all my music encoded in ATRAC 3 Plus oh and I still have and use my Zune silicone carpet that came with it. I Use it to prevent scratches on my phone at home.
It is better because:
-Plays instantly, does not load. Great if you live in the Philippines where the data network is awful all the time.
-All music being played is something you know and are familiar. If you're not into listening to new songs.
-Having them can be free of charge ;)
-You can easily use them to add to your videos when editing.
-Offline music means you're not constantly downloading content on the internet which reduces battery consumption.
-You will never stumble upon a music that has its lyrics censored or replaced.
You can just download offline all your spotify albums which you want to listen to, and then turn on offline mode. And boom, you have your own private, “just what’s needed” selection of artists, albums and songs.
That’s what I do a lot of the time!
But you have to pay for that. The point he was trying to make was that there are ways to do that for free.
I've never used a streaming service for music, I refuse to listen to those ads or use up my limited internet data on my phone for that. I download full albums onto my computer and burn them to disc to listen to in my car. I also throw them on my phone for if I need to use that. It's so much better than streaming.
Ironically Microsoft's Zune Pass was a major milestone towards the streaming services most of us use today
Is the audio not in sync?
I have been using my original 5th gen iPod Touch as my main music player since about 2019. No one can stop or interrupt my music, not even google maps. Im not getting upcharged for the same lacking service. No one can copyright strike anything in any of my playlists. I can use my wired IEMs, or plug it into my car. Never going back.
unless of course the 3.5mm comes back at which point I'll just move my collection to my new phone. It won't, but I can dream.
Wow...he just said "really cool Zune HD"
As a proud owner of a Zune myself, I love this.
The zunes have always been cool, even the old brown bricks!
This isnt an argument for apple music's ui (it has some issues that i find youtube music solves very well) i just appreciate i can download cd quality music and use my watch in conjunction as a pseudo ipod shuffle
I had windows plays for sure devices then got a Zune and it was so frustrating you couldn't just drag and drop your files like you could on the plays for sure.
I had zunepass back when it was amazing!
obsessed with your music taste!!
Easy use case for me, airplanes. I know a lot of planes have Wi-Fi now, but I'm not going to pay for low quality Wi-Fi just to play my music. I just download what i want locally to my phone and treat it like an mp3 player.
Yep, I always have a big downloaded playlist for when I travel for that reason! Super quick and easy way to get as much music saved up as I could need on the go. The Spotify app doesn’t work great when in offline mode though
Brat on the thumbnail and Caroline Polachek + Sophie in the first 5 seconds? I don't care what you have to say, you already get my like
Pop icons only 🫶🏼
Zune HD is such a beautiful device.
If you were using Apple CarPlay it means that you have an iPhone. iPod is still built inside iPhone. You could have transfer those same songs from your Zune to your iPhone and used CarPlay. Easily just logging around one device instead of two.
Yes, and I have many albums downloaded on my phone’s music app too, but I was purposely going for a music experience separate from my phone entirely.
2:49 AirPods do work with the iPod Touch 4th gen and above and also the iPod Nano 7th gen.
It’s actually AMOLED and yes, the colors POP very nicely
It’s hard to even consider using an iPod or anything without an AMOLED after using it honestly!
Hell, I'm rocking a Sony WM-F1 Walkman cassette player with a stereo FM radio!! As well as a Sony MDLP MiniDisc player/recorder!!!
I’m iPod user since 2004 and use one different everyday on my daily tasks, from the classic 6g to the touch 3g at home, to the nano 6g for training or the shuffle going outside, back on the 2006 I received the first zune for Christmas and I simply loved it the design, the color and the features were superior at time than my latest iPod (classic 5g aka iPod video), unfortunately I never can use it despite how much I tried install the software, even tried on many PCs I could access the ones at home, at my grandparents house and school one, at least 7 of them can’t handle the software installation from the incluidos cd installer and also downloaded from their web page, the 8th pc installed the downloaded version without problems but never could sync a single song with the zune, so it got back to its box and years later I sold it to buy a new 6g iPod, i wish I really could have use it cause it was a really cool device
brat and sophie spotted, we love good taste
Zune gang appreciates your choice
Damn, this makes me miss my Zune HD! I might have to go on eBay and buy another one now. It was how I listened to music at the gym. I still have an older 80gb Zune, but don't use it that much anymore 'cause the battery doesn't hold a charge for long. Other than that it still works fine, and I still have the software on my laptop.
loved my Zunes!
Everything is better without internet. Cheaper, more responsive, longer battery live.
Been building up my offline music and game collection for some years.
I wanted a red Zune SO BAD when I was a teenager. I liked them so much more than iPods. I ended up getting a SanDisk though lol >.>
I forgot about the Zune HD model. f
LOL, I've never stopped using my iPod, never subscribed to Apple Music, I still buy and rip my own music cds.
for sure playing from files is more ecological than streaming
The lack of immediacy you bring up towards the end is, honestly, kind of "the point" for a lot of people who are switching away from Streaming. The act of having to rip a CD, or buy an album from Bandcamp, and going to a computer specifically to transfer it over to your device is a bit of a hassle, but it adds a degree of curation to your experience, and makes you think "is this album or this playlist worth the hassle? Or the cost?" And if it isn't, perhaps you don't like it as much as you thought you did.
Cutting off streaming is as much about cutting yourself off from algorithms and dark patterns as it is about taking stock of your own relationship with the art you enjoy.
I bought the original Zune 30gb model shortly after they first came out (got the brown color because nobody bought them so they dropped the price drastically). I used it a lot and really liked the software and UI! It sounded great and came with good headphones. I am thinking of replacing the battery and getting solid state storage for it so i can use it again.
I hate subscriptions and like owning media, so Spotify is a non starter for me. I use a third party music player on my android phone because the new default player is absolutely terrible. I usually listen to music while doing other things and rarely listen to music on its own without anything else going on unless I'm driving. When I'm driving I need to keep my phone connected over bluetooth to the vehicle speakers in case I have to take a work call, so I play music, podcasts, and audio books, with my phone anyway, so having a separate device for music isn't worth it for me, but I do like seeing other people's set ups.
I used to constantly buy the CDs of the music I love, then made the horrible mistake of buying into music streaming, which now means that with me trying to go back to actually owning the media I engage with is a very expensive prospect.
Yeah I had a bunch of physical media I ditched when streaming started gaining momentum too. But it has been fun to slowly build a more curated personal library through the past few years (but yes very expensive!)
@@spencereeves At times it feels genuinely harder to just purchase things these days, especially physical media.
I am enjoying the process of deciding what music I really enjoy before making that purchase, I'm picking up a dedicated music player soon so I can make the most of my moondrop IEMs.
Zunes were so underrated. I still have mine somewhere… if I can find it 😅
Been using it for years till this day. Hard part is probably just getting album info but the Reddit group has a lot of helpful info for everything. You can use a Bluetooth transmitter to use it with your car too even though it can be annoying 😅
The lack of external volume buttons was why I returned mine and got an iPod touch instead. I really wanted to like it but the extra steps to control something so essential as volume was a deal breaker for me.
Honestly, it's not even the algorithm that bothers me, but rather the lack of actually owning a song. I'll give you an example: at the beginning of the year I bought Kanye's digital album (Vultures 1) and in less than 24 hours Two songs were simply deleted from the album, luckily I had the files I bought on my computer, but those who didn't simply couldn't hear those two songs.
That's why I'm looking for an iPod in addition to buying CDs and digital albums, that way I'll actually own the songs and no one will be able to modify or delete them.
That is definitely become a growing problem in the past few years. Lots of newer songs are being censored, edited, or completely removed from streaming services lately and owning the songs in digital or physical versions might be the only way to preserve them in the future!
Supreme music taste
I saw Marina so I like.
FLAC Hunter gang 😎
To enjoy streaming music and offline music, just buy an old LG smartphone series that already supports Quac DAC.
I've been using a cheapo amazon mp3 player for years, good for when i'm out and about and don't want to drain my phone data and battery lol
I still use my Zune HD almost every day, even though I have an Apple Music subscription. P.S. I bought my Zune 12 years ago.
I recently got a refurbished iPod and I absolutely love it. I do want to get a Zune HD for the display as well! It’s gorgeous, but so rare. Does anyone know of a modern equivalent?
The answer is obviously yes imo. When you pay for services like Spotify you don't own the music and it can be removed from the service. Furthermore, paying for Spotify barely brings much to the artists. I've heard from several artists over the years that the money they make from Spotify doesn't even come close to the cost of recording their music. So they make most of their money from selling the music directly.
One mistake I see a lot of youtubers make is making it seem like the only alternative is to use a dedicated music player (often one of the more expensive name brands) and go through the experience of ripping their cds one my one and putting it on there. That just isn't the case. Music can be bought in lossless digital formats like FLAC and DRM in sold music isn't very common now a days and hasn't been for year. Computers, and smartphones all have access to some music playing app. And these apps can usually play most if not all common music formats.
What I do is I have all of my music on my computer (and I have backups as well if needed), I try to keep my music in wavpack format because it has a hybrid lossy mode that turns each song into two files, a lossy file that can be played on it's own, and a lossess correction file that makes the song lossless when in the same folder. Since I have less space on my phone (I have about 160GB of available space shared between the phone and it's micro sd card), I just copy the lossy files to the phone (their quality is set to about the same as a high end mp3). I use foobar2000 on both devices. I only had to copy the files once, File transfer just uses the standard file explorer when I connect the phone to my PC.
This set up works for me because I only use the phone for music and the occasional text. I don't spend a lot of time looking at my phone and because I only focused on the necessities I have a phone plan that is cheap, but also quite limited in bandwidth. Upgrading to one with unlimited internet would multiply my monthly cost for it and to me it's just not worth it to stream music I already have. a cheap 30-40 dollar mp3 player. The sound on it is pretty good but it seems to not play nice with micro sd cards above 16GB, which can still hold quite a bit of music as long as it isn't lossless. It also can't play as many formats, so I just converted some songs to mp3 for it.
If you don't want to use your (or any) phone, there are quite a few music players that can be bought from that price to any price point. You don't need to buy a Zune or an Ipod to get away from streaming services or even just to get away from your phone in genera. DACs tend to run Android (some can run Rockbox if you want to), which means the experience is similar to a phone and putting music on them doesn't usually require any sort of extra computer software. They also tend to have bluetooth if you want to use wireless headphones. Dacs also get more and more features targeted towards audiophiles the more expensive you go, like being able to drive higher quality headpones, support for hi-res audio.But if you don't care about that, there are options that are much cheaper that are affordable.
Honestly, the Zune just sounds better. Plus, you don't have to be constantly connected to a phone signal to hear your music. The interface is just more intuitive and easy to use than Spotify to me.
I am looking for an MP3 player to play audio books, Quran recitation, audio lectures, and anything audio so I can use my phone less. I bought Kindle to read book so I don't reach to mobile, I bought apple watch so I don't reach for mobile, yet I reach for my phone. So I seriously need to make my life simpler buying alternative to my phone so phone will only be used when I am outside or just when I need to call or watch high quality videos. That way I will use less electricity since those mp3 players gonna consume lot less power comparatively and my phone's charge will last forever, helping the community overall imagine if everyone does that!
Where I live we still use "offline" music, we just download songs in our phones so... yeah?
It's not because of the ads is just because it's the normal thing to do still. Sometimes you don't have internet and most of us just don't wanna pay for listening so we just use UA-cam
I myself don't have any music offline anymore, the easy access to internet made unnecessary for me but it drains my phone battery faster. I just use UA-cam
I love the zune ❤
Or buying an old sony walkman cellphone adding extra storage to it and having wired headphones with it, still has a very decent music quality in it in my opinion 👍
I know my people when I see their playlist. 😌
exactlyyy
>people ditching streaming
Good, this is the way
life can be so cyclical eh - new tech/retro feels
Music nowadays is more convenience than experience
Ok 30 seconds in and I'm seeing brat and Chromatica. This is a safe space fr.
a safe space for pop appreciation! 💞
I mean, I’m here in 2024 just listening to my music that I curated myself just fine.
I used to own the Zune HD and it was the best. But Microsoft quickly stopped supporting it. So I had to move on.
Zune was Nd is still a dream
Well i'm still using Offline music. Obviously i'm pirating them until it reach to 15 Gb for song (mp3, M4A, mp4). With over 13.000 song in my phones. When you trying to play all of the song it need at least 4 or 5 days just to finished to play all of the songs.
I feel like a good compromise is hosting your own music server (e.g. jellyfin), the original client kinda sucks for listening to music but you can use third party ones like finamp
I use a HiBy R3 II. Having a small device that gives me studio quality and can hold thousands of songs beats anything.
Run your own navidrome server, works exactly like spotify, you wont need to change anything
As a spotify user, why would I buy those to listen to music when I listen to ads