The simple fact is this. If you don’t buy any music from either of the companies, Zune and iTunes work great together. Let me tell you about our setup.

Our Media Server (the same one that shoots our tv around the house - our $250 after-rebate eMachines T5216) has both iTunes and Zune software running on the same PC. I rip CDs in iTunes and iTunes puts the music (I had to set this in preferences, but that was easy) into my “My Music” directory. The My Music directory is the default where Zune looks to put stuff on your Zune.

So, when I sync my iPod, it happens automatically - same with the Zune. They share the same directory for music and I can stream from the server to any Media Center Extender in the house (we have two) or even an Airport Express we have connected to the home stereo.

In terms of buying music, you do have one option that works perfectly across the two systems - eMusic - and right now they’re giving 25 free songs just for giving them a try.

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