Microsoft today announced a new “landmark agreement” (Microsoft’s words) with major and independent music labels to “bring significant new value to the subscription music model.”

The Zune Pass subscription service currently gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month. Starting today subscribers will also get to select 10 tracks per month to keep and add them to their permanent collection (an estimated $10 value).

This is a nice bonus for Zune Pass subscribers, but Apple figured out how to sell 10 songs for 13 bucks a while back, and people didn’t bite on that, either.

To potential customers, Microsoft’s rent to own “subscription music model” is a ball of confusion. It’s going to take something a lot more creative than this, or fire sale prices, to make the Zune an interesting platform. 

Microsoft: it’s time to make the Zune the best platform for finding free music, watching movies, discovering podcasts or something new. And once you figure out something cool to do, figure out how to explain it to people in language that they can understand.