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As a long time US Zune Pass user now living in the UK, I want to buy a Zune Pass for here... but I can't seem to get it to work.

Going to the follow address brings up a "Page Unavailable" error...

https://live.zune.net/en-GB/account/buySubscription

alt text

Does anyone know why?

Thanks!

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I seemed to be able to get it from - zunethings.co.uk/zune-pass-days-p-159.html – Joe Taylor Nov 15 '10 at 12:27
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Also that page loads fine for me. – Joe Taylor Nov 15 '10 at 12:29
Wow. That's an insane price to pay for a 30 Zune Pass! It's only £8.99 from MS directly. – Django Reinhardt Nov 15 '10 at 12:35
Interesting that the page loads for you. Why won't it load for me? :( – Django Reinhardt Nov 15 '10 at 12:35
@Johnny W You're not using some sort of Proxy software or other non standard config are you? – Joe Taylor Nov 15 '10 at 13:20
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migrated from superuser.com Nov 15 '10 at 16:04

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Zune Pass has only very recently become available in countries outside of the US. The rollout has coincided with the launch of Windows Phone 7 around the world, as Windows Phone 7 has a lot of integrated features that link up with Zune.

The problems with launching "all-you-can-eat" music services like this around the world come down to the fact that laws on licensing, downloads, file copying and copyright vary around the world. Add that to the fact that even the big worldwide music publishing companies run different regions as separate 'child' companies and the company (Microsoft in this case) need to re-negotiate their deals with each music publishing company in each country to be able to offer their service there.

In your case I would suspect that your Live ID is associated with a US address and credit card, and the UK Zune service is blocking you as they're not legally allowed to offer anything under the UK agreement to US residents. A UK resident will see the same sort of thing if they try to subscribe to the US store.

You can either contact Microsoft and arrange to have your details set as a UK account, or create a brand new Live ID and purchase your Zune pass with a UK credit card that's linked to a UK address.

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Thanks for your answer, but I'm actually using my UK XBoxLive LiveID, with a full UK address and credit card linked to it. :( – Django Reinhardt Nov 15 '10 at 17:57
up vote 1 down vote accepted

I found my answer, maybe it will help someone with the same problem:

I changed my computer's Location in Windows from US to UK. Then I restarted my machine and voila! I now have a Zune Pass (and can access the above link).

Here's where I changed it (in the Control Panel)...

alt text

Surprising, but there you go. That's all it was. Very bizarre.

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up vote 0 down vote

I would try using a US proxy. Maybe the UK has some restriction on this. (I don't know why they would) Google "Free Proxy List," Use this information in the Tools -> Options -> Advance -> Network -> Setting (This method is for Firefox) to set a manual proxy configuration (us the HTTP proxy). When you find the proxy you would like to try (not all will work), the address might be show like this 74.213.84.216:5127. Insert the 74.213.84.216 as the address, and insert the 5127 as the port. I'm not saying that this will work, I'm saying give this a try. If this works, comment back.

-Good Luck

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