dozens of albums now unavailable for Zune pass

Pardon me for a moment while I express my displeasure over the so called unlimited, "all-you-can-eat" joy provided by Zune pass. In theory, it's a great concept. Pay a monthly fee, listen to and download as many albums as you want. What I don't like is the fact that I just went through my music collection removing all the invalid license tracks. There had to be at least a dozen albums, and not by obscure artists either. Two albums by Snow Patrol had been made unavailable (Songs for Polar Bears and When It's All Over), four by Sigur Ros (Med Sud I Eyrum, Takk, Agaetis Byrjun, and Von), seven by Mogwai (Rock Action, Happy Songs for Happy People, Zidane, Ten Rapid, The Hawk is Howling, Government Commissions, and Mr. Beast ) were album purchase only and half of a Bruce Springsteen Album (Magic, tracks 2,4,5,7,9,10) had been made purchase only. Those are just the ones I can remember. There were others by the Frames and the Pogues, and it goes on and on. What strikes my is how random the license expiration is. I have some very old albums that have always worked, for almost three years now, and others that barely last six months. I've now been frantically sorting through my albums to use my song credits to buy the singles that I don't want to lose. I've mentioned this before in the Windows 7 thread, when my sync was breaking, that Zune needs a license expiration notifier. I know that located somewhere on the server that stores the songs is the accompanying license information, so what's so hard about having a window pop up when you sync your Zune that tells you which songs will have their licenses expire soon. 

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My Zunes: Black and Chocolate 30GB, Red 4GB, Black 120GB
Do,re,mi,fa,so why do I always feel like an idiot singing this.

Been reading Terms of Service in relation to another issue I have and I came across this clause:

We may change, delete, modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service, any functions, features or content of the Service, on any device, at any time and for any reason, in any territory, in our sole discretion. Due to contractual or other limitations, some content available in the Zune Marketplace may from time to time become unavailable. Consequently, you may not be able to re-download or re-stream certain content that you have purchased.  To the extent we receive information from the content owners indicating the date of unavailability of their content, we will endeavor to share this information with you.  

Note the last sentence: "To the extent we receive information from the content owners indicating the date of unavailability of their content, we will endeavor to share this information with you." I have never, ever received any communication in any form notifying me that my content is going to become unavailable at a certain date. Zune team, are you truely never informed in advance by content owners that they intend to make certain content unavailable? I find it hard to believe you're not informed, and if I'm right, then it means you are not fulfilling your Terms of Service vis a vis the user.

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My Zunes: Black and Chocolate 30GB, Red 4GB, Black 120GB
Do,re,mi,fa,so why do I always feel like an idiot singing this.

I couldn't agree more, and in fact jumped into the forum  when I went to listen to Snow Patrol, and couldn't, and this was followed by clicking over to one of my favorite albums "Somnium" by Sianspheric and having the same problem.  My initial response to Zune was to sing praises to all my friends, who are now finding the same complaint being discussed here.  Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth....  The list goes on and on. What are the terms of these licenses and how "unlimited" are we really?  I'll be anxiously awaiting explanation...

Understand everyone's frustration as we all have experienced this issue. I'm sure you all know the disclaimer is there because Zune is not responsible for what is available on the Marketplace. They are not sitting there turning buttons on and off, those feeds and what still has a license comes from their music suppliers/vendors and the record companies. They control what is available for digital download. Some stuff only becomes available for purchase, other stuff may be completely removed from any use.

The "unlimited" is limited to what you have in your Collection with a current DRM license. The "unlimited" does not apply to anything and everything that you see listed on the Marketplace becasue as you state not everything is available.

That's why you get the 10 free downloads per month to use on songs you want to keep forever, or go buy the CD and rip it back to your Collection. For example I doubt you will ever see The Beatles collection available for digital download.......some of these artists you mention, it could be that they come back you just have to keep checking their page and also sometimes a different version is issued. I have an artist I watched for about 1 yr and finally the album became available.

Don't get too discouraged...the Zune Pass is still the way to go.

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Zune is AWESOME!!...since Nov 2006 Black30GB and Pink30GB (my wifes'!!!)

I completely agree with you, Zune pass is a phenomenal product and, despite my frustrations with it at times, I love it. I've gotten 200 albums in three years. Thats $500 versus about $2000 if I'd bought all the albums from iTunes. I love the Netflix model Zune uses, and I hope Microsoft continues to support it and expand the scope of the service. My issue here now is that the tracks and albums become unavailable without prior warning to users. The first time you find out that an album or song is unavailable is when you play it or sync it. It might be too late to purchase the content by that time. The notification aspect needs to be vastly improved, beyond a sentence buried in the TOS whose promises don't seem to have been followed up on.

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My Zunes: Black and Chocolate 30GB, Red 4GB, Black 120GB
Do,re,mi,fa,so why do I always feel like an idiot singing this.

Point well taken on the notification...but remember I think the record companies/artists would rather you go to the store and buy the CD for $15, rather than just buy 2-3 of the album songs online thru Zune Marketplace. If they told you 2 days before it were to go to Unavail status, they probably loose money since most will buy the couple songs they really like, rather than just buy the whole CD.

I suspect evetually the notifications will get better, just as long as everyone understand that Zune is not in control of the content and its status of availability.

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Zune is AWESOME!!...since Nov 2006 Black30GB and Pink30GB (my wifes'!!!)

It's been three years; the notifications should have been addressed by now. As for record companies not liking us buying one or two songs off of an album, they seem to have no problem counting the money they get from iTunes one or two songs at a time. Plus they release singles all the time, so they know that if people have the option of buying the one good track off of an album they will tend to do that.  

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My Zunes: Black and Chocolate 30GB, Red 4GB, Black 120GB
Do,re,mi,fa,so why do I always feel like an idiot singing this.

The fact is, there are no notifications, and there never have been. The TOS states that if they get enough lead time, they will "endeavor to share" that information, but all that means is that they might see fit to try to inform you somehow one day. There's nothing concrete about actually informing you in any way, and my guess is, there never will be. Your "notification" will consist of the songs no longer working.

And the argument about the labels wanting you to buy the CD is completely, utterly bogus. The vast majority of these songs are available as single-song purchases at iTunes, Amazon, Lala, Rhapsody, Emusic, anywhere you care to mention, except Zune Marketplace. The fact is Zune has been unable to come to an agreement with a very large swath of labels for a long time, and until they do, those songs will all be unavailable for Zune Pass and only available as Album Only purchases.

(You're out of luck on those two Snow Patrol albums though: Those don't seem to be available anywhere anymore.)