Why did Zune Die?

It’s hard to forget the Zune. After all, Microsoft’s mid-2000s bid to sink the iPod with an MP3 player of its own was notable for its immense thirst.

The Zune, which was clunkier than the iPod and came in black, white, pink, and putrid shit-brown, desperately wanted to be cool. Unluckily, at the time of the Zune’s release in 2006, Apple also began airing its “Get a Mac” ads, which cast Microsoft as terminally lame. Still, anti-Apple sentiment was strong even then among the nerds, and so the Zune was an underdog. Microsoft tried to capitalize on this, and counter Apple’s messaging, with its own “edgy” ads and stunts like sponsoring a VICE event in Toronto.

It didn’t work. The writing was on the wall for the Zune as early as 2008, as stores pulled it from shelves and revenues dipped. In 2010, the final model was released, the Zune HD, and in 2012, it was discontinued. The software was abandoned in 2015. Apple won the war and barely broke a sweat.

Recently, I became fixated on the idea of someone using a Zune in 2017, which I found absolutely hilarious for reasons even I don’t fully understand. What must it be like? Does the modern-day Zune owner feel like a gadget-toting John the Baptist in a desert of Apple products, vaping and sermonizing on Radiohead? I lit the bat signal on Twitter: Zune owners, come forward, if you’re out there. To my surprise, my inbox was soon filled with emails from people who claim to still use, and love, their Zunes. So, I called them.

Almost everybody had a different reason for getting one, and for hanging on to it. For some, it was the features—you could share tunes with friends, subscribe to a Spotify-like music service, and it could be synced wirelessly (all features the iPod lacked)—and for others, it was simple hatred of Apple. Some kept their Zunes for those same reasons, or the connection is now sentimental. For others, the app-less Zune is a sanctuary from endless smartphone notifications.