The “Break it Down” Blog

I noticed last week that I haven’t seen much of the “Plays for Sure” program around anymore. It seems that Microsoft has left all the 3rd party vendors out in the cold and is now embracing “Certified for Windows Vista”.

The Plays for Sure program was a certification prosses that started in 2004 and gave 3rd party vendors the assurance that their products (players and music files) would be compatible with Media player, not have issues with the DRM, and synchronize properly. Microsoft states “Same compatibility promise, different name”. So you would think the music you purchased at online music retailers like Napster, Rapsody, Walmart and even MSN Music store that carried the Plays for Sure certification would play on a new for Vista device? NO Here’s the kicker….. The Zune is Certified for Windows Vista, but the MSN Music Store files don’t not play on a Zune (even though both are “Certified for Windows Vista”).