Wow, shocking news coming from such as die hard Mac fan, and regular user since the OS 9 days but I have decided to grab a Zune of my own, just to see what it really is like. Now before you think I am crazy or have lost my mind, I want to make it clear that I am not swearing off the iPod or iPhone and will actually continue to use my Shuffle on my daily runs and my iPhone daily as well.

But the allure of the subscription based model has enticed me to give it a try, I did consider Napster or some of the others, but also have been Zune-curious for a while. I love music and cannot always listen to all the new stuff that I want, because buying tracks and CD’s on a regular basis gets really expensive. The idea of paying $14.95 a month now seems like a good deal, at least to me. I plan to use the Zune Marketplace to download and listen to music, and continue to use iTunes for my podcasts (which reside on my iPhone) and also for any music that I want to purchase. I have no plans to purchase anything additional from the Zune Marketplace.

Part of this decision to go ahead with the Zune purchase is because I have been getting a little frustrated with streaming services lately and am bored with my current, albeit large iTunes collection, I also have a spare desktop PC that I can use to store the songs and sync the player with.

Just to let you know, I have decided to go with the Red Zune 80, I am leaving in just a few minutes to go an pick it up. I ordered online at Circuit City, so basically I am typing this up as I wait the 24 minutes to assure it is ready and waiting when I arrive. Well its just about time to go. I will get a nice unboxing and some initial first thoughts later.

I also registered a new domain to celebrate the purchase, iboughtazune.com, which I plan to use to journal my experience with the Zune. Since I understand there will not be an overabundance of content the domain will simply point to the areyouageek blog using the category of iboughtazune. So to follow my experience you either continue to read the regular areyouageek blog or just grab the Zune related stuff at iboughtzune.com.

I also must give some credit to what feels like somewhat of a stolen idea of a domain name to Brent over at iboughtamac.com. Thanks! I was hesitant, but the name just sounded like a natural way to separate the experience from my regular site, I also have no plans to “brand” the name.