Microsoft Music Deals app

The new Microsoft Music Deals app for Windows 8 and Windows phones is giving away 100 album downloads. Some good stuff too. 320kbps MP3s.

I grabbed Catch A Fire (Deluxe Edition), The Long Run (Remastered), Tumbleweed Connection Deluxe Edition (2cd Set), Led Zeppelin (Remastered), Physical Graffiti, Candy-O, L.A. Woman, Quadrophenia (Super Deluxe Edition), Tres Hombres (Expanded & Remastered), plus a bunch of other stuff.

Plus they're selling a bunch of box set downloads for $1.99.

http://winsupersite.com/xbox-music/microsoft-offers-incredible-music-promotion

 

But will it work with my brown Zune?

If anyone can figure out how to get this on a Mac/iPhone without signing up for XBox Music please share-I have a Microsoft account but I don't see the offer.

 

Nice deal!

@jupiter8, I don't know if there's a way to use this on an iPhone, but on my Mac I run the Windows 10 Preview as a VM (virtual machine via Virtualbox) and was able to grab a bunch of these freebies that way. Might sound like a lot of work but in my case it was already setup and ready to go.

Those box sets are ridiculously cheap. John Lennon Signature Box for $2? Nice!

 

Super Deluxe Quadrophenia (42 songs but of course not including those in 5.1) free.
Smiths Complete $1.99.
Complete Grateful Dead studio albums: $1.99
Super Deluxe VU White Light White Heat: $1.99
Muddy Waters Chess Box: $1.99
Honky Tonk Girl-The Loretta Lynn Collection: $1.99
Frank Sinatra: Complete Capitol Singles: $1.99
As noted, all are 320 mp3s.

 

Someone should change the thread title or start a new thread. These are amazing deals if you deal in MP3s.

Not just same old same old

 

These deals actually boggle the mind. $1.99 for the complete Led Zeppelin? $1.99 for the complete Stax singles, vol 1? $1.99 for the complete '70s Eagles studio? $1.99 for the complete Jim Morrison era Doors? $1.99 for REM Complete Warner Bros Rarities (130-something tracks)? $1.99 for the complete Smiths?

Just the compensatory royalties on these would make these big money losers. Hard to imagine Led Zeppelin said "sure, we'll take a fraction of $1.99 for the entire cake..."

And the 100 free albums are not shaggy dogs. A couple of classic Rolling Stones album, a couple of Zep albums, the super deluxe version of The Who's Quadrophenia, and so on. Someones gotta be paying something for these, and we're not talking Spotify type streaming royalties.

 

The app altered my computer and I can't undo it. Many attempts at restoring have failed. And I never even got anything downloaded.

 

Not working from Portugal or Germany (=Europe?).

 

They just added a whole bunch of new freebies including Exodus, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Songs in the Key of Life, Endtroducing (Deluxe), and a bunch of stuff for $1.99 including the Deluxe Who's Next, the Super Deluxe VU & Nico, and the Super Deluxe Nevermind.

This is pretty crazy.

 

That is exactly what I'm wondering about. How is this whole thing happening!? Anyone have theories about the royalties?

 

My two theories (entirely speculative):

Microsoft is eating the losses and paying the normal royalty rate. They are doing this in order to promote Windows 8, perhaps convincing people to upgrade in order to be able to get access to deals like this.

Microsoft negotiated significantly reduced royalty rates for specific recordings. I can understand someone like Kanye West, for example, making a couple of albums available for free in the hopes that people will like them enough to buy his other albums. That doesn't explain, however, what would be in it for anyone to sell for $1.99 their complete recordings.

Speaking of Kanye, I downloaded one of his albums for free because I liked the samples enough to think I might like it. I did like the production, but the songs themselves were pretty boring and there is so much manipulation on his vocals that I can only assume he wouldn't be a good singer without that manipulation.