Microsoft Corp announced earlier today the release of a new music subscription plan for Zune’s users, who will be able to permanently keep 10 tracks each month.

The Zune Pass subscription service available until now provided users with access to millions of tracks for a monthly fee of $14.99. The estimated value of the new subscription plan is of about $10 and users will be able to add the 10 tracks to their permanent collections.

The new plan was approved by the four major music labels – Warner Music Group, EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, but also by several independent distributors.

The service lets users download music that can be shared on a maximum of three PCs and three Zune devices. There is also the possibility of downloading MP3s free of digital rights management (DRM), offered by UMG and Sony BMG, tracks which can be transmitted to any device and burned on CDs as users see fit, even after the subscription ends.

Still, the general interest in Microsoft’s offer is not as big as the companies involved had hoped for. This is mainly caused by the fact that consumers are looking strictly for DRM-free music, which at this point is not Zune’s biggest segment.

"I think everybody in the industry would say they would have hoped that by this time there would be more (subscribers)," Rio Caraeff, Universal Music Group eLabs executive vice president, stated in an interview. He added that because the results are significantly lower than expected, the service had to be redesigned. "Microsoft's making some concessions. We're both working and investing," he concluded.

Microsoft’s marketing director Adam Sohn confirmed that the number of subscribers is not as big as initially anticipated, but he strongly believes that the new offer will bring a boost for the business.

For quite some time, the online subscription based music sales have become an important revenue source for the record companies, which in the past few years recorded worrying sales results with their traditional methods – CD sales keep dropping at an alarming rate and the illegal downloads cause the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The digital sales have become more and more popular, allowing music enthusiasts to support their favorite artists from the comfort of their own home, while saving time and also money – this represents a win-win situation, with the artist being compensated for his work and the user, aside from the music, gets to keep a few extra bucks and also avoids dealing with the busy record stores.

Over the years to come, the music industry is expected to make a massive move to the digital world and it is important for all the companies involved in the industry to get ready for that moment, by making sure that their music archives are streamed online and that consumers are properly informed on all the details of the services and are also provided with the best offer possible.

Another extremely important aspect is related to the efforts made by the companies to get users to understand that the only way to keep their favorite artists active is to support their efforts by paying for their music.